


Briardale

by Sh4d0wgaL



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Small Town, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angels, Bullying, But who am I to judge?, Chan's mr. popular, Changbin's emo, Demons, Felix's a softie, Humor, I think it's pretty funny, M/M, Magic, Minho's a rebel, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Abuse, Polyamory, Romance, Slurs, Supernatural Hunters, Swearing, Vampires, Werewolves, Woojin's a dad, lots of gay stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2020-03-08 06:19:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18888898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sh4d0wgaL/pseuds/Sh4d0wgaL
Summary: The small town of Briardale has always been run by three families:The Bang family - VampiresThe Seo family - Witches/WarlocksThe Han family - WerewolvesBang Chan, Seo Changbin, and Han Jisung were the best of friends until they were dragged into the pointless family feud their three families have had for centuries. Three years have passed since the friends fell apart, and just before the new school year begins, two new families move into town.The Kim family - The forbidden union of an angel and a demon.The Lee family - Former hunters turned protectors of innocent supernaturals that other hunters cold bloodily murder.Woojin, Seungmin, Minho and Felix have know each other most of their lives. They were always each others only friends because their parents were constantly moving from town to town, never staying long enough for them to settle down and make other friends. When their parents promise them that they are planning on finally settling down in a town at least until Felix and Seungmin finally graduate, the four finally feel like they can start a life in their new home.Cross Published on Wattpad





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who haven't read my first fic, The Gifted Few, and don't who I am: Helllooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Welcome. 
> 
> I always greatly appreciate feedback if you will give it to me.  
> I will try and be as consistent as possible in updating. I should pick up the pace soon now that I'm out of school. 
> 
> I have an editor because I am extremely OCD when it comes to errors and friends are awesome, but I mess up A LOT sooo its a struggle. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this story thoroughly and that it shows some improvement from my first work.

The sun was just setting as the young vampire made his way through the dimly lit woods. He had walked this path through the woods that were located at the edge of their small town so many times in his life he could probably make it to his destination with his eyes closed. His senses were heightened as the world drew closer and closer to night. He could feel the cool evening breeze on his pale skin so vividly, hear the running water of a ravine even though it was far away, taste the late summer air on his tongue, and smell all the dozens of animals and their blood scattered around the forest. He licked his lips at the temptation to run straight for a coyote he smelt nearby, but eventually got ahold of himself. 

He wasn’t here for that and wasn’t in the mood for food now. The school year began tomorrow.

Chan was going into his senior year which is ironically supposed to be the most exciting year of high school, but it was just another year spent avoiding his two former best friends, reminded of how majorly he fucked everything up. It was a reminder that this year was his last chance to fix everything before he had to leave their small town for college. Three years have passed since the fight that caused the two younger boys to stop talking to each other and him, so he doubted he would have the courage to confront them now. 

Chan finally came to a halt when he approached a tall bush of briar. It was the briar patch that had hidden 3racha’s Hideaway for years. Circling the thicket, he stopped when he reached the centuries-old oak tree that hid the only entrance to what lays beyond the briar, but the hidden entrance wasn’t very necessary since no one would actually be stupid enough to find themselves this deep into the woods of Briardale to be able to find the Hideaway in the first place. 

Nothing in his hometown is as it seems. The woods being the most unpredictable place of it all. 

One such unpredictability is the ancient, circular tower that the patch of briar grew around, hiding it from the outside world. The structure served as the only proof of past human life within miles of dangerous wilderness. It was within the stone walls Chan had had the time of his life. It was where he and his two best friends could escape all the drama of their families and just be kids. 

But now everything about the place was just a reminder of what they had lost. The couch and cushions that the three of them had managed to smuggle from one of Changbin’s family stores. The spray paint art that they had left on the walls when they were bored. The other random items that just seemed to end up there by one of them. 

Chan laid himself down on the couch and looked up to where he could stare at the sky, all thoughts of tomorrow already exhausting him. The roof of the tower had long ago caved in or was just never there in the first place, but Changbin had bewitched the ceiling long ago to protect their safe haven from the elements. That too was another reminder. 

“I’m done with reminders,” Chan thought to himself as we pushed himself up and left the Hideaway hidden within the briar patch. 

The trip down memory lane had made him hungry after all.

 

*****

 

Boxes. Lots and lots of boxes. Moving boxes were definitely something that Felix was all too used to at this point. His moms, or rather adoptive mothers, were constantly moving from town to town for their ‘jobs’, never staying in one place for more than a few months. It had made it awfully difficult for him to make new friends wherever they ended up living, but at least he had his older brother, Minho, and their two best friends, Woojin and Seungmin. Woojin and Seungmin’s mom and dad were lifelong friends with Minho and Felix’s parents and were also in the same ‘business’ with each other, so wherever one family went, the other followed. As a result, the only friends all four of them had ever had were each other. 

But that was all supposed to change, assuming what their parents had promised them was true. This time they were planning on settling down for three whole years, just long enough for Felix and Seungmin to graduate. It allowed all of them to finish high school going to a single school rather than hopping around so much and struggling to catch up. Woojin only had one year left and Minho had two, but it was still nice to know where you can come home to. 

“Felix, you need help carrying that?” Minho suddenly interrupted Felix’s thoughts as the older noticed Felix struggling to lift two especially heavy boxes at once while not really paying attention. He stopped sorting through the box he had opened and rushed over to take the second box out of Felix’s hands. 

“Thank you,” said Felix. 

The two brothers then climbed the garage stairs into the main floor of their new home and set the boxes down in what was soon to be a living room. As Felix set his box down he groaned loudly and rolled his shoulders to relieve the pain. 

“Is your back hurting again?” 

“Yes. It has been getting worse every single day for the past week. I swear it feels like my insides are knotting and impaling my skin,” Felix huffed. 

“Well tomorrow is the first of September, and that means your sixteenth birthday is soon. So technically your insides are impaling your skin, if you count your wings as insides,” Minho explained with a sarcastic tone. 

“Ugh, well no one said anything about growing wings being this freaking painful,” Felix said as he reached behind his back to scratch it aggressively. 

“Take off your shirt. I’ll give you a massage.” 

“Okay… Why are you being so nice?” Felix suddenly looked at Minho suspiciously. “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

Minho laughed, “Oh come on Lix, I am just trying to do what any good older brother would do.” 

This only made Felix become more on guard as he slowly moved into a fighting stance. “Aha! That is where you messed up, creature. Minho would never say something sappy like that. I don’t know if you’re a shifter or a demon possessing my brother, but I warn you that my parents are trained hunters and I know how to kick some ass.”

Minho laughed even more, “Yeah and I happen to have the same parents and can kick just as much ass as you, if not more. I would be happy to remind you about this fact if you don’t cut the crap and let me give you the fucking back massage I so kindly offered.” 

After that Felix visibly relaxed, “Ah, there's the brother I know and love.”

“You’re such an idiot,” Minho said as he shook his head. “Now take off your shirt like I told you to.” 

Felix compiled this time and removed his shirt, turning around so that his back faced Minho. The older’s gasp surprised him, so he turned around frantically in response. 

“What? What is it?’

“There are two, extremely red lines down the middle of your upper back. Aish, it looks painful,” Minho said as he reached out to touch the marks on Felix’s back. The younger flinched in pain as Minho’s warm hands made contact with his back and it soon began to itch more. Felix reached back to scratch the itch, but the contact was too much on his bare skin. 

“Ahhh, this freaking sucks. Why do I have to be a freaking half fairy of all things? Why can’t I either just be full human and not have to deal with any of this or just be a full fairy and have been born with my wings rather than painfully having to grow them around my sixteenth birthday whilst I’m trying to live my freaking life!” Felix suddenly ranted. 

While Felix was complaining, Minho had walked over to their newly installed refrigerator and freezer and grabbed an ice pack. “At least you know what you are rather than being completely in the dark. I could be a human or some ‘unnatural abomination that should have never seen the light of day’ as the monsters who killed my birth parents had put it.” 

As he said those words, Felix suddenly got quiet and looked at Minho directly in the eyes. He didn’t know why his brother tended to bring up that moment so often even though Felix knew that it made him depressed whenever he talked or thought about it. He had a guess that the more Minho tried to make it into a joke, just like how he makes everything else into a joke, it would make the whole situation less real and more bearable. 

Felix took the ice pack from Minho’s hand with a mumbled thank you and placed it on his back. 

“Why are you being so nice though?” The younger suddenly asked. 

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just happy about actually being able to stay in one place for a while. It should be fun.”

“Please please try to stay out of trouble this time. If Dae and Cassie are serious about us staying here until I graduate, I would appreciate the entire town not hating us thank you very much.” They referred to their adoptive parents by their first names to avoid confusion. 

“No promises,” Minho teased with a smirk. He paused for a moment before continuing, “but I think they're hiding something from us. When was the last time we went anywhere that wasn’t for their work? And now, all of a sudden, they're wanting to settle down and do what for three years? Get actual jobs? Not to mention Aunt Maiz and Uncle Leo agreeing to settle down too. It’s awfully suspicious to me.”

Felix paused for a moment. He hadn’t thought about it too much since he was just happy about the fact of finally having a chance to make new friends, but now that Minho said it like that, it really didn’t make any sense. 

Both their attention was then pulled to the staircase leading to the second floor as they heard the very people they had just been talking about descending it. Once Dae and Cassie were on the ground floor and they saw their two sons, they smiled widely at the brothers. 

Both of the women were in their mid-thirties and had adopted Minho when he was seven and Felix two years later when he was eight. Both of the young boys’ parents had been killed before Dae and Cassie had a chance to save them. This was a great source of regret for the both of them, and so they take raising both the boys extremely seriously in order to make sure to give them all the love and support that their birth parents should’ve been able to provide. 

Both Minho and Felix always remind them that they shouldn’t feel responsible for what had happened to each of their parents because the real monsters at fault were the ones who actually took their lives. All four of them were extremely close, and both the young boys could not have asked for better parents to raise them despite how eccentric they can be sometimes. 

“Minho! Felix! Thank you both for helping to bring more boxes up from the garage. I say we take a break for now and get some food,” Dae said enthusiastically as she wrapped Cassie into a back hug from behind. Dae is always the more energetic one of the two and the overall mood setter of their family. If she isn’t bouncing off the walls then there is something very wrong. Dae is a full year older than Cassie and abnormally tall to the point she is a full head taller than Cassie, who is average height, but she is actually a small natured person trapped inside a tall body. The older’s favorite thing to do was back hug her partner and rest her head nicely atop Cassie’s head. It has become her habit to return to that position whenever she is excited or pouting. 

She doesn’t get to stay there very long, though, because the next moment the front door of the house flew open and Dae unattached herself from Cassie to take on a defensive stance before she sees who was coming through the door.

“Seungmin, darling. As much as we love you and Woojin’s visits, I told you last time if you used your demonic abilities to force your way into our house again, I was going to make you eat an entire sickeningly sweet pie,” Cassie huffed and scolded the boy who had just made his way into the house. “If you aren’t careful, we might accidentally kill you on reflex because we think you’re a threat.”

“Welcome, you two!” Dae exclaimed as she returned to her usual hyper self. “Did you and your parents take a break from moving in, as well? We were just about to make dinner if you would like to stay and eat with us. I’ll try and keep Cassie away from the baking materials.”

As Dae cheerfully spoke, an older boy came to stand beside Seungmin and bowed in order to apologize to everyone else in the house, “I’m sorry for my brother’s rashness. We couldn’t wait to come over here and your new house since the thrill of ours has died down after being stuck in it for the past few hours and, I guess, Seungmin took his excitement a bit too far,” Woojin gave his little brother a side-eye before continuing, “We would love to stay for dinner.”

While this exchange was going on, Felix was too busy freaking out about the sudden visit to say anything. He was currently still shirtless and staring directly into the eyes of his longtime crush, Kim Seungmin. His ears turned a tomato red, and he accidentally lost his grip on the ice pack, causing it to hit the floor with a loud bang. 

Seungmin, whose attention turned to him at the sound, just cracked up laughing at the sight while Woojin was actually being worried about his younger friend. “Are you okay, Felix? What did you need the ice pack for?” he asked worriedly. 

“And when did you lose your shirt, Felix? You look like a deer caught in headlights just now,” Seungmin asked still chuckling a bit. 

Felix was quick to scoop his t-shirt up from the floor and secure it back over his head once he had finally come to his senses. “U-uh, I was just hot and using the ice pack to cool down.” 

Cassie and Dae gave each other a knowing look. 

“It’s your wings, isn’t it, Felix?” Cassie asked Felix. When he nodded to confirm their theory, they both gave him warm, motherly smiles. 

“Well, that isn’t anything we weren’t expecting. Even though we aren’t your actual parents and are only human, we still know almost everything you could possibly want to know about the supernatural, so if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us, darling,” Dae said as she came to give her son a hug. 

“Just remember that with your wings, you will also start to come into your fairy abilities, so be careful when you are outside in nature and always remember the rules we taught you,” Cassie added a bit more sternly. 

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve only drilled it into us a thousand times. Never use abilities in public, never let power turn you evil, and never, ever, let anyone know that you aren’t human,” Felix recited the three rules that Woojin, Seungmin, Felix, and even Minho (just in case) had heard a thousand times over the years. 

    “Very good,” Cassie said as she clapped her hands together and then she turned to look up at Dae. “Shall we get dinner started?” Her wife nodded and followed her into the kitchen, leaving the four boys alone in the living room. 

    As soon as the four boys were left on their own, Seungmin walked over to Felix and lifted up the back of his shirt to take a look at his back. 

“Seungmin! Do you mind?! I put my shirt back on for a reason you know.”

“Oh calm down Felix. It’s not like it’s anything I haven’t seen before.” 

As soon as he saw the marks, however, his face scrunched. 

“Ouch. That looks like it hurts.”

“Does it hurt, Felix?” Woojin asked concerned. “If it’s too much I can take the pain away for you.”

“It’s fine, Woojin. You would just be transferring it to yourself, and I don’t want to put that burden on you.”

“It does make you an angel for offering though,” Minho interrupted with a tease.

“Wooooooow. Smooth one there, Minho. Are you practicing your jokes so you can annoy the shit out of everyone at yet another new school?” Seungmin shot back. 

“Hey, what can I say? I have a reputation to uphold.”

“You don’t have any reputation, yet. And you never do whenever we move. You choose to keep your bad boy reputation going,” Felix complained again.

“And I’m always the one that has to bail you out,” Woojin said with a sigh. “And you’re no better, Seungmin. You play along whenever you find it convenient.”

“At least I have an excuse. It’s not my fault I inherited Mom’s demon traits for mischief while you inherited Dad’s traits for being a goody-two-shoes.”

“We always appreciate you being the dad and cleaning up after us, though, Mr. Goody-two-shoes,” Minho continued to joke. “Just think, you only have one more year to deal with the three of us and then you’re free.”

“Hey! Don’t group me in with the two of you. I’m innocent.”

“Yes, you are, Felix, and that’s why you're my favorite,” Woojin said as he pulled the freckled halfling fairy into a hug. 

Seungmin gasped jokingly, “You love him more than your own blood brother?”

“Yes. Yes, I do.”

Minho lost it laughing at that point, and Felix was nervously smiling along with the situation. The truth of the matter was they were all practically brothers with each other since they were raised together, but whenever Felix thought about that fact, it just made him sad because he knew Seungmin would never think of him as anything more than that. He didn’t even know if Seungmin was gay. And no one knew he was either. 

To be honest, Felix had no idea why he felt so nervous to come out. He had two moms, his brother was flamboyantly pansexual, and he knew that the entire Kim family were at least strong allies since Uncle Leo and Aunt Maiz have been best friends with Dae and Cassie since before Felix was born. 

He just couldn’t be as open about it as the rest of his family, so maybe that’s why he didn’t want to come out. Or maybe because he would all of a sudden feel like he should be acting differently than he has his entire life. There also was the fact that it would be a little awkward to explain that he figured it out when he started crushing on his best friend. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments you left me on chapter 1!  
> They all made me really happy.

The sound of birds chirping outside of Felix’s window woke him up the next morning. He slowly blinked his eyes open as they adjusted to the sunlight that was shining through his window. Felix laid in bed a bit longer until the door to his room was thrown open, and Dae was turning on the lights to make sure that he was up.

“Hurry up and get ready, Felix. Breakfast will be ready in fifteen minutes.”

The night before, after they had all finished dinner, Woojin and Seungmin said their thanks and headed back to their own house to finish moving in their bedrooms before they had to get to sleep. Minho and Felix also continued to unpack until they both passed out after a long day of labor. Since Felix had been so exhausted when he went to bed, he slept deeply and well, making it easy for him to get up and change out of his baggy nightshirt and sweatpants into his clothes for school. He washed his face, styled his hair, and then skipped downstairs just as Dae was finishing cooking their breakfast. Waffles, bacon, and fruit.

Minho descended the stairs a minute after Felix had started to eat and sat down with a groan next to his brother.

“Didn’t sleep well?” Felix questioned.

“Nope. I couldn’t find my dreamcatcher in any of the boxes and the nightmares came back,” he responded before digging into his breakfast.

Felix knew exactly what nightmares the older was talking about. Both Minho and Felix’s parents had been murdered when they were young, Minho’s were killed by unidentified supernaturals and Felix’s were killed by ruthless hunters who didn’t even care about the fact his father was human and his fairy mother was a peaceful supernatural. The thing that differentiated them, though, was the fact that Minho had witnessed his parents being killed. Their lives just ended and all Minho could do was watch from the closet his parents had hidden him in.

Those memories always seemed to haunt the older boy and had caused him recurring nightmares since he was a kid until Cassie had gotten a witch enchanted dreamcatcher to prevent the nightmares.

“I’m sure it will turn up once we finish unpacking. If not we can talk to Cassie about it,” Felix reassured. Minho just nodded.

“Talk to me about what?” Cassie asked as she walked into the room. At the same time, Dae came over from the kitchen to sit down across from her sons at the dining table.

“Good morning, darling,” Dae said as she looked up with a bright smile directed towards her wife and pulled her down into the seat next to her.

“We were just going to talk to you about if it’s okay for us to borrow the car after school so we can go into town with Woojin and Seungmin,” Minho said to dodge what Felix had actually been talking about. “We were wanting to explore the town a bit.”

The two of them gave a glance at each other before Cassie turned back to them.

“I guess that is fine if it’s all four of you, but I want you guys back at least an hour before sunset.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I said so. You never know what could come out after dark.”

“Ha. I knew it,” Minho said nudging Felix in the side. “I knew it was too good to be true that we moved here to avoid all the supernaturals and hunters. You both know there is something going on in this town, and that’s the real reason why we moved here.”

“That’s not what I said, Minho, and you know it.”

“It’s what you implied. Why else would you be so worried about us being out after dark? You’ve trained Felix and I to be able to defend ourselves since we were ten, so if you are going to say you are just being precautious, I would say have a little more faith in our abilities to defend ourselves,” Minho ranted. “Felix agrees with me.”

“Would you stop dragging me into things.”

Dae spoke up, “Cassie, he has a point. We can’t keep babying them forever.”

“Fine,” Cassie sighed. “But be back before nine, I think that is a reasonable curfew, and I absolutely forbid you both from the woods outside the town. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Minho says satisfied as he gets up from the table and takes his plate to the sink.

“Thanks for the meal, Dae,” Felix said before following after Minho.

They then both ran back upstairs, brushed their teeth, grabbed their backpacks, and then made their way to the end of their driveway where they met up with Woojin and Seungmin so that they could walk to school together. The high school they would be attending was just an eight-minute walk from their new homes, and since both families only had one car each that the parents usually needed to use, they decided they would just walk with each other to school every morning.

“Ugh. I usually hate the first day at a new school because I always have to keep myself distance since we know we are just going to leave before the year is even over. Now I can just be myself and make new friends,” Felix said with a smile as he skipped a bit ahead of them, too excited to slow down.

“Yup,” Minho added. “I can finally make some friends outside of you losers.”

“Yeah, right. As if anyone would want to be friends with you and your loveable personality,” Woojin sarcastically shot back at the younger. Minho just grinned and gave Woojin a wink.

“I’m so flattered that you find my personality loveable. I do think it’s my charming point.”

“Gag me. I did not need to see you flirting with my brother this early in the morning, Minho.”

“Jealous are we?” Minho asked as he raised an eyebrow.

“He isn’t jealous, Minho. You're just being an annoying pain in the ass, per usual,” Felix defended Seungmin.

Just as Minho was about to fake his feelings being hurt, they approached the entrance to the school. There were hundreds of people bustling around the parking lot, the front yard, and the entrance of the school. Some were rushing inside for their first period and others were goofing off with their friends, not quite ready to admit summer break was over and they were actually back at school.

All four of them paused for a second and looked around at each other.

“Here we go again,” Felix declared.

“First day of a new high school for the last time,” Seungmin finished for his friend.

And with those words, they made their way to the front office to get their schedules and lockers. They were given their textbooks and their individual schedules with their locker number and combination written on it as well. All of their lockers were clustered together, so they quickly compared their schedules as they were putting their textbooks up, and Felix was happy to find out he had two classes with Seungmin. P.E. for 4th period which was right before lunch and then English for 6th, the second to last period of the day. Both Seungmin and Felix had math first period, but Seungmin was a year ahead in the subject so he was in Algebra II while Felix was in Geometry. He did notice, however, that Minho had Algebra II first period as well with the same teacher which kind of made Felix feel a bit left out as the two of them walked off to the classroom together.

Woojin seemed to notice that Felix was upset about something and gave him a brotherly hug. “Don’t worry so much, Felix. Where did all that earlier excitement go?” he said with a warm smile before taking off to go to his own 1st period.

Woojin was right, of course. He shouldn’t be getting caught up on Seungmin and Minho when he can be making new friends. Felix clapped his own hands to his checks to snap him out of being all moppy and made his way to Geometry.

By the time Felix found his way to the room, the bell had just rung making Felix the last one to make it into the room. _‘Great. Late to my first class on my first day.’_

Luckily for him, it seemed the teacher was late, too, because there were just a whole lot of students and no teacher in sight. Unluckily for him, that just meant he was left standing at the front of the room awkwardly. All of the students had been talking among themselves in the absence of someone to keep them quiet, but as soon as people began to notice Felix, they got silent and just looked at Felix like they were assessing him.

“H-hello,” was all he managed to stutter out. When everyone just continued to stare, he scanned the desks and found an empty one about halfway back, next to the room’s far side window and retreated to it. As he threw his stuff down and sunk into his desk he mumbled, “Great work, Felix. First impressions at their finest.”

Talking resumed as Felix took his seat, and it was almost as if it had never happened until the boy who was sitting at the desk in front of him turned around and leaned over to him. Felix was nervously frozen as the stranger's face was suddenly brought closer and closer to his own, not because he was scared to talk to people, but because the boy that was trying to talk to him right now was _extremely_ attractive.

“You must be new in town,” the gorgeous boy whispered to him with the most perfect lips Felix had ever seen.

“Y-yeah. How’d y-you know that?” Felix barely managed to respond.

“‘Cause I don’t know you, and everybody knows everybody in this town which makes you new.”

“Is that why everyone was staring at me a second ago?”

“Yup yup. Folks around here aren’t very trusting of people they don’t know. You know how old, small towns in the middle of nowhere can be?”

“Yeah… I may have lived in one or two.” Which was actually true. These types of towns were usually a hotbed for supernatural activity which was just another reason for Minho to be so suspicious of the place to begin with. “So if people don’t trust newcomers, why are you talking to me?”

“Because I was new in town myself last year. Luckily I am living with an old family of the town, so people were a bit more willing to trust me. My name is Hyunjin, by the way. What’s yours?” the handsome boy asked as he finally backed his face up a bit and extended his hand for the freckled boy to shake.

“Felix,” he said while shaking Hyunjin’s hand.

“Nice to meet you, Felix. Welcome to Briardale High.”

And just as Hyunjin said those words, a stern, bald man with glasses came walking quickly and powerfully into the room holding a large thermos.

“Sorry for being so late this morning class. One of the coffee machines seems to have broken over the summer, so we are stuck with one now. That ends up making the line twice as long, and there is no way in hell I am going to teach all you hormonal, disrespectful teenagers this early in the morning without a cup of coffee,” the teacher stated with a commanding voice before he took a sip from the thermos he was holding. Felix was doing a double take, trying to figure out if his new teacher had actually said everything that his mind had just processed.

Hyunjin seemed to notice Felix’s confused expression because he just let out a slight giggle and explained, “Mr. Joon is always like this before he’s had his first cup of coffee, so it's best to just go with it. I had him last year as a teacher since he teaches Algebra I to the freshman, too. It was a real experience.”

“Speaking of disrespectful teenagers: Hwang Hyunjin, would you please face forward in your seat. I realize I was late, but you should know that once I arrive, class begins and you should be paying attention,” Mr. Joon shouted out to the boy. Felix could have sworn he saw Hyunjin smirk just before he turned to face forward, but it happened too quickly to tell exactly.

“Could you find it in your heart to forgive me, Mr. Joon? It seems too soon in the school year to be getting upset with me,” Hyunjin responded to the older man in a singsong voice that was a different tone than the one he had been using before. Felix was expecting the teacher to get mad at Hyunjin for talking back, but it almost seemed as if Mr. Joon was… blushing?

The older man was frozen for a second before he cleared his throat and turned to the chalkboard at the front of the room to write down the classroom rules for the year, completely disregarding Hyunjin.

Hearing and seeing what had just happened gave Felix the chills, but before he had a chance to overthink it, his attention was pulled back to reality by Mr. Joon turning back around and loudly voicing the rules he had just written on the board. After that, the rest of the class went by with him lecturing and recapping some math concepts from their previous year.

When the bell signaling the end of 1st period finally rang, Felix scrambled to put his math notebook back in his backpack so he could ask Hyunjin if he could explain to him where his next class was. He wanted to ask so that he wouldn’t get lost and be late again, but also he was hoping to talk with the boy some more considering he is the only person he has been able to talk to so far.

Unfortunately, when Felix looked up from his backpack, Hyunjin was already out of his desk and making his way towards the doorway. Felix was about to call after him when the gorgeous boy turned his head back towards Felix with a smile on his face.

“See you around, freckles. Try not to let anybody maul you.”

And with those words, he disappeared out the doorway.

‘ _Did he just call me freckles?_ ’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long for me to update. I had graduation last weekend and then my whole family was in town. I actually had chapters already finished and ready to update while that was all going on but then my editor got really really sick (and she was graduating too so I felt awful that she was sick during graduation).  
> She is better now, though, which is good.  
> Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed chapter 2.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!  
> A lil faster this time.

Felix’s next class of the day was history. Even though he didn’t get any help from Hyunjin, it didn’t take him nearly as long to find that classroom since he had already seen most of the school after getting lost and now had the general layout of the place understood. He walked into the history classroom and the first thing he received was the same wary stares that most of the students had given him in his math class. This instantly drained his desire to try talking with someone, and, contrary to before, no one took the time and effort to try talking to Felix first like Hyunjin had done. Instead, he took an empty seat in the back of the room and kept to himself the whole time.

Third period went by a bit better, not because more people talked to him or he developed the courage to attempt to start a conversation with people, but because it was his study hall where he wasn’t expected to talk to people. So instead he just played video games on his phone the entire time so he could distract himself long enough to make it to P.E., the class he had with Seungmin.

The bell rang, and Felix immediately jumped out of his seat and borderline ran to the gymnasium. He made his way into the big room and scanned it looking for his puppy-faced friend, but couldn’t see him anywhere. ‘ _Guess I beat him here.’_  

“Oh, Freckles. It’s you again.”

The familiar voice and odd nickname suddenly pulled Felix’s attention to a pair of boys who were standing around, talking to each other, just outside the locker rooms. He instantly recognized the beautiful boy who had just called out to him, but the boy he was with, he couldn’t identify. The new boy had a rounder face with chubby cheeks and was quite a bit shorter than Hyunjin, who Felix was only just now noticing was actually very tall. Felix felt as if he had seen the stranger somewhere before, but didn’t care too much to figure out where because of the intense gaze he had on Felix.

“Uh… Hi Hyunjin. Why do you keep calling me freckles?”

“Because you have a lot of them, and I feel like it.”

“You totally forgot his name, didn’t you?” the new boy asked matter-of-factly and Hyunjin just gave him a hard side glare.

“For your information, I did not. Jisung, this is Felix. Felix, this jerk here is Jisung,” he introduced them while waving his hands between the two. “We don’t like each other, but we had English together before this, and he still feels the need to talk to me.”

Jisung scoffed, “it’s not you I don’t like. It’s the wannabe emo kid you choose to spend all your time with that I don’t like. You aren’t half bad and just so happen to be in like three of my classes for the second year in a row, so I just thought I should go ahead and get along.”

“For the record, Changbin doesn’t like you either, _princess_ , so don’t think you holding your petty grudge does anything to hurt him.”

Felix could have sworn he heard Jisung growl before he venomously said, “do _not_ call me princess.”

It seemed as if Jisung was about to storm off when his attention was directed to the area behind Felix, his eyes seeming to narrow even more than they were at Hyunjin.

Felix looked behind himself curious and saw Seungmin walking towards him which immediately brought a smile to his face.

“Seungminnnieee,” Felix said gleefully as his friend became close enough to wrap into a hug. “How has your morning been going?”

“Eh, kind of weird to be honest. Everyone stared at Minho and I when we walked into math this morning. Minho was reveling in the attention, but I kept getting glares during my other two classes as well, and no one’s really spoken more than three words to me,” he explained before looking to the two other boys behind Felix. “I see you’ve had better luck than I have, Lix.”

“Oh, yeah,” the freckled boy said turning back around to his two new ‘friends’. _He wasn’t exactly sure if he could call them that yet, and he certainly didn’t like the glare he kept getting from Jisung._ “This is Hyunjin and Jisung. Hyunjin is in my first period, so we met there, and I only just met Jisung since he was talking to Hyunjin when I walked in. This is my best friend, Seungmin.”

“Nice to meet you,” Hyunjin said skeptically. “How many of you are there?”

“Pardon?” Felix asked confused by the question.

“Well, one new student happens every now and again here such as myself last year, but two new people that aren’t even related is very strange for people here.”

“Both me and Felix have older brothers that go here, too, so there are four of us,” Seungmin said with a smirk. “How come the school doesn’t like newcomers? Scared of the trouble they’ll cause?” he asked and winked at the others.

“New people have unpredictable backgrounds,” Jisung said, saying something directed at Felix, and now Seungmin, for the first time since Felix started this conversation. “And if you don’t know where someone came from, how are you to trust them?”

“If you’re wondering who you shouldn’t trust, I’d be on the lookout for Felix’s older brother, Minho. _He’s_ the one you should be worried about. Felix and I are just innocent angels,” he said as he threw his arm over Felix’s shoulder, pulling the smaller boy close to him and putting on his token, adorable smile that seemed like it could never belong to a demon. Felix had to fight the urge to laugh at the irony of Seungmin’s statement. They should definitely be worried about Seungmin, as well.

Before their conversation could carry on, the bell signaling the beginning of class rang, and the PE teacher called for everyone to line up and pick a partner so that they could do partner warm-ups. Felix and Seungmin, of course, were quick to pick each other as partners.

 

*****

 

When the teacher said that they should pick a partner for warm-ups, Jisung was quick to grab onto Hyunjin’s arm and drag him to the side of the room that was furthest from the two boys he had just met a moment ago.

“I’m flattered that you want to be my partner so damn much, but if you could please let go of my arm, I might restrain myself from kicking you in the shin,” Hyunjin said angrily as he yanked his arm from Jisungs's grasp.

“Oh, please, I’d like to see you try to kick me with your clumsy legs and not fall over.”

Hyunjin narrowed his eyes, obviously pissed off at being called out for his clumsiness on dry land. “What happened to your ‘go ahead and get along’ policy?”

Jisung, suddenly realizing what he had just said, scratched the back of his neck apologetically. “I know, I’m sorry. My temper sometimes gets the best of me, and I’m kind of on edge right now.” he said with pleading eyes hoping that Hyunjin would forgive him. He really, really did want to get along with Hyunjin.

“Why are you on edge? The new students?” Hyunjin said as he looked across the gym to glance at them.

“Hey, don’t look at them,” Jisung whisper shouted and pulled Hyunjin’s attention back to him.

“Why? And why were you being so mean to them when I introduced you guys? I get that everyone in this town is wary of newcomers, especially the founding families, but you weren’t this hostile towards me when I first arrived.”

“W-well, I… That was different! Okay?” Jisung spit out quickly. “Like you said, the founding families are wary of newcomers, specifically ones they know nothing about. The fact one of the founding families vouched for you and the fact we knew you were one of us made it different.” Not to mention Hyunjin was too breathtakingly beautiful to stay aggressive towards since the moment Jisung first laid eyes on him.

“I thought your family hated the Seo family, though, and the Bang family for that matter?”

“Ugh, we do, but at least the one thing our three families can agree on is the safety of this town, so they will get along in matters of security against the outside world only. They’ve worked hard for centuries getting humans to settle here in order to hide the other presences at play, but when someone settles without their knowledge, it most likely leads to hunters,” Jisung said in a hushed tone making sure no one around them could hear.

“You think they're hunters?!”

“Shhhhhhhh, would you calm down and not announce it to the world, please.”

“What makes you say that?” Hyunjin asked nervously, fighting the urge to return to staring at the two boys again.

“Their scents are off. I first noticed it during my history class with that freckled boy. It’s human, definitely, but there is a faint scent of something else. Then I got a completely different scent off the other, but it’s foul and nothing I’ve smelt before. Would you j-just,” Jisung bit his lip regretting the next words that had to come out of his mouth, “tell Changbin to look into them. His family is in charge of detecting threats.”

Hyunjin finally returned a smile to his face at the mention of Changbin’s name. God, Jisung hated Changbin even more for that fact. “Sure thing,” Hyunjin agreed before they carried on with their warm-ups in silence.

 

*****

 

The bell signaling the end of fourth period rang which meant that it was finally time for lunch. Hyunjin knew that the two newcomers would be totally lost in the pandemonium that is the Briardale cafeteria, so he decided to use this as his chance to talk to them again and introduce them to Changbin. He was now slightly on edge around them since Jisung’s warning about how they could be hunters, but he was always good at faking his true feelings it seemed. So as soon as he put a smile on his face and pep back in his step, he approached Felix and Seungmin.

“Hey,” he greeted them. “If you guys need a place to sit at lunch you can sit with me. I usually eat lunch with just my friend Changbin cause he’s all antisocial and he doesn’t really talk to anyone at this school except me even though I’m a year younger. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you joined us today.”

“Are you sure?” Felix questioned. “He seems like the type that would mind.”

“Nah. He’ll get over it,” the tall boy said with a mischievous smile, and then motioned for them to follow him.  

They made their way through the halls, Hyunjin expertly navigating the traffic of students either clustering around their lockers to talk to their friends before lunch or already heading to the cafeteria at as fast a pace as they can manage while still looking natural so that they can get food before the line is too long. The volume drastically increased as he entered the cafeteria and was instantly faced with the chaos of it all.

“Everyone at this school is very cliquey, so everyone tends to sit with people from the clubs or sports teams they're in unless you're the social pariah who doesn’t do any extracurriculars. I’m on the swim team, but I don’t sit with them. I prefer the pariah,” he explained to Felix and Seungmin as he walked over to the back corner table where Changbin always sits. Hyunjin sits down as dramatically and as loudly as possible to take the dark-haired boy’s attention away from the book he is burying his head in and instead have his piercing eyes look at him.

“Hey, Changbinnie!” Hyunjin said cheerfully to him. “I invited two of my new friends to sit with us today. You don’t mind, do you? You don’t? Great!” Hyunjin added as he answered his questions for Changbin.

Changbin was at a loss of words, but when his gaze shifted to the two boys behind Hyunjin, his eyes went wide in what Hyunjin assumed was shock.

“U-uh, y-yeah,” he mumbled out.

“Thank you so much for letting us sit here. We would have been at a total loss had Hyunjin not invited us,” Felix said in his usual low voice with a contrasting illuminating smile across his face as he took the seat next to Changbin. “I’m Felix, and this is my best friend, Seungmin,” he motioned to the boy taking the seat next to Hyunjin and across from himself. “We are new in town in case you couldn’t tell.”

“Yup and people seem to be avoiding us like the plague because of that fact,” Seungmin said with a smile.

Changbin just remained staring at Felix a beat longer than he should have before he loudly closed his book rather suddenly and coughed to clear his throat. “Well, welcome to Briardale. What brings you to this small town in the middle of nowhere?”

“Both of our parents are business partners who tend to travel a lot for their jobs, but they got a lease on an office space downtown and are finally deciding to settle down here until Seungmin and I graduate. It’s a bit of a relief because we were getting exhausted from all the relocating,” Felix explained.

“Oh, your families must be the owners of the new psychiatric clinic in town,” Changbin said. Apparently, he already knew a bit about the newcomers. ‘ _That’s a good sign,_ ’ Hyunjin thought.

“Yeah,” Seungmin responded shocked and skeptical as to how he knew that detail, “how did you know that?”

“Changbin’s family does pretty much all the real estate in this town, so they probably are the ones leasing the office space to your parents,” Hyunjin elaborated.

“Mhm. I don’t think my parents knew your parents had kids, though.”

Just then, Hyunjin could hear a huge commotion break out behind him, so he turned around to see what was going on. At the entrance to the cafeteria was none other than Bang Chan, the most popular guy at school, and he was currently getting mobbed by a bunch of horny teenage girls and even some boys who were all trying to welcome him back to school after the summer, trying to garner his attention for long enough to make it seem like they had a chance with him.

“Is that Woojin?” Hyunjin suddenly heard Seungmin say from beside him. He didn’t recognize the name, but soon enough he noticed a boy that he had never seen before standing right next to Chan. He looked very overwhelmed by the number of people now surrounding him.

Hyunjin then saw Seungmin stand up on his chair out of the corner of his eye and shout, “Yo, Woojin. We’re over here.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to them. “Seungmin! Couldn’t you have done that without being so loud?!” Felix whisper-shouted at his friend.

“What? You saw the amount of people around him. It would have taken forever to get his attention.”

And sure enough, it worked because Hyunjin could see Woojin wave goodbye to Chan and start to head directly towards them.

“Hey guys, I see you’ve made a few friends,” the newcomer said with a toothy grin.

“Yeah, and so did you,” Seungmin laughed. “Who was that you were with?”

“Oh, Chan? I met him in my Psychology class, first period, and then saw him again in our class before this, Calculus. He was nice and was telling me about the school. He even showed me the way to the cafeteria,” Woojin said as he sat down next to Seungmin.

“Tsk. Typical Chan. Having to be nice to everyone he meets. He should drop the bullshit act already,” Changbin muttered bitterly to himself.

“Who is he?” Felix questioned curiously.

“ _He_ would be the infamous Bang Chan. He’s a senior, captain of the swim team and the debate team,” Hyunjin begins to explain. “Last year, he also helped out a senior, who’s graduated now, but was being bullied because he was gay. He ended up asking him to prom and coming out as bisexual to the whole school which caused people to kind of back off because he was pretty much well liked by everyone already. Less and less people started to care if you were gay or not after that,” Hyunjin noticed Felix’s posture straighten a bit at that bit of information. “Soon enough, more people started coming out, and now Chan’s got the jocks, the nerds, and the gays all worshipping the very ground he walks on making him the most popular kid at this school.”

“Oh, please, he just has a hero complex and isn’t anything special,” Changbin said as he crossed his arms and continued to be bitter. ‘ _He looks adorable when he pouts_ ,’ Hyunjin couldn’t help but think.

“He is also the oldest son of one of the three founding families of Briardale which makes his family super super rich, but Changbin’s family is also one of the founding families so that obviously doesn’t determine your popularity.”

“Hey!”

Hyunjin let out his signature, adorable, high pitched laugh as the older started to lunge for him across the table. He skillfully dodged behind Seungmin while saying, “you know I only tease you because I love you, Binnie. I think it’s a good thing most people are scared of you because if they took the time to actually get to know you, I would hardly have you to myself at all!”

“Whatever,” said Changbin, giving up on the attack and, instead, turning his attention to Woojin. “Anyways, you're new, too?”

“This is my much lamer older brother, Woojin. He’s a senior,” Seungmin introduced him.

“Hello, nice to meet you,” was all Woojin said after that. He was all too use to Seungmin and his roast.

Hyunjin and Changbin both responded by introducing their own names to him.

“I also have an older brother, Minho, but I have no idea where he is,” Felix sighed. “He’s a junior, though.”

“He’s probably up to no good and going to try to get me to bail him out of it again. I’ve had enough. I’m not doing it anymore,” Woojin said in a huff.

“This is the second time you guys have mentioned this Minho guy in a negative way. Should we be scared?” Hyunjin asked half-jokingly. Woojin and Felix didn’t seem to find it funny, though, while Seungmin was giggling as he observed Woojin and Felix exchanging serious looks.

“Yes. Yes you should,” they both said at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha! Almost all the members are at play now. 
> 
> Thank you all again to the people that left me comments. They really make my day and I love to see what you all are thinking about my story ^.^


	4. Chapter 4

Even though lunch was an entire hour, it felt like the time flew by in a blink of an eye. Felix had so much fun eating lunch with not only Seungmin and Woojin, but also Hyunjin and Changbin, who, by the end of lunch, Felix felt he could call his friends. They talked about all sorts of random things, from what all of them enjoyed doing to what were all the best places to hang out in town. Felix discovered that Changbin loved to read and always had a book on him as a result. He also mentioned that he helped his parents a lot with their work whenever he wasn’t lost in a book or studied on his own about miscellaneous subjects. 

Hyunjin, on the other hand, went on and on about how much he loved to swim and how he was also trying to teach himself how to dance but was having trouble because of how clumsy he seemed to be. Honestly, the more Hyunjin talked, the more Felix seemed to get lost in his words for no reason in particular. Sure, Hyunjin was attractive, but Felix only just met him that day and he wasn’t the type to fall for people without some time spent between them. However, even despite this fact, he still caught himself completely zoned out and staring at Hyunjin while he was explaining something a few times. No one seemed to notice, though. Thankfully. 

When the bell finally rang, all of them exchanged phone numbers and went on their separate ways to their next classes. Felix, in particular, was especially excited for his next class: Theater. 

He had never told anyone this before, not even Seungmin, but Felix had always wanted to be in a school musical. He obviously had never gotten the chance before since it was never certain he would still be at the school when the time for the performance came around, but it was different this time. 

He knew that Minho was also in this class, too, but unlike Felix, he wasn’t taking the class because of an actual interest in acting or musical theater. He was only taking the class because they needed at least one fine arts class to graduate, and actual art or choir really didn’t appeal to him. No. Being able to be his normal, weird, and out there self while doing things like improv were a lot more his speed. 

Felix reached the auditorium, and took a seat in the front row closest to the stage, directly in front of a person sitting on the edge of the stage who Felix assumed was the teacher. He was a younger man, probably in his late twenties or early thirties, and he was completely engrossed in the laptop he had in his lap. There weren’t a whole lot of people in the auditorium since Felix was somewhat early after he had, again, rushed to reach this class as fast as possible. He had a habit of being impatient about things he was excited about. 

More students slowly began to arrive, and, not to Felix’s surprise at this point, they all avoided the front row where he had seated himself. Something that  _ did _ surprise him, though, was when the chubby-cheeked guy from P.E. walked in and  _ did  _ take a seat in the first row, but he was still as far away from Felix as he could possibly be. 

‘ _ What was his name? Was it Jaesung? Jisoo? _ ’ Felix contemplated as he accidentally stared at the boy. He had a bad habit of only remembering a name after hearing it more than one time. ‘ _ I mean, if you only hear a name once, you obviously didn’t need to know it, _ ’ the freckled boy thought as he shrugged his shoulders, giving up on guessing. The bell rang, and Felix still hadn’t seen any sign of Minho making an appearance. 

“Is he really going to skip class on the first day of school? What on earth is he trying to accomplish?” Felix sighed to himself. He also had a habit of thinking aloud, but it really just looked like he was talking to himself if anyone happened to witness it. Luckily no one was in the vicinity to hear. 

The class sat in silence for a good minute before the man sitting at the edge of the stage dramatically slammed his laptop shut, which caused Felix to flinch, and then hopped down from the stage and onto the floor of the auditorium. 

“Gooooood afternoon, class,” he said with an announcer type voice and enthusiasm. “For those of you that do not know me, I am Mr. Wang. It is a new year which also means new talent and a new fall musical. I am sure all of you have been eagerly waiting for me to announce what show we will be performing, and I will definitely tell you by the end of this class, so do not fret! The catch is that we must all get to know each other a bit more before I can announce it, soooooo we will be playing a name game!”

Everyone seemed to simultaneously groan in response to that ultimatum. “Ah, wonderful. It is great to see everyone excited and ready for the new year! Now circle up on the stage class. I’ll be playing with you all.”

To much dismay, they all ended up standing and climbing the steps to the stage. Once circled up, Felix was to the teacher’s right and when he glanced over, he saw that the boy from P.E. was to the teacher’s left. 

The game they played was one of those memorization games where you have to introduce your name and your favorite animal to the class, and then the next person would repeat what you said and then add their own introduction. The list of introductions would get longer each time a new person added to it. The game ended up starting with Felix which caused all the people to the left of Mr. Wang to groan because that meant they would have more to memorize.  

Felix cleared his throat, slightly nervous that his introduction would be repeated the most as a result of him going first, but also relieved that he didn’t have to memorize a long list of names and animals. “My name is Felix, and my favorite animal is a koala.” 

The girl who was standing to the right of him went next, reintroducing Felix and saying he liked koalas before she said her own name and that she liked cats. The game carried on, and it started to get difficult for people to remember all the names and animals by the time they were more than halfway around the circle. Felix began to feel bad for the person who would be going last and would have to memorize  _ everyone’s _ name and favorite animal. He ended up glancing over to the left of Mr. Wang and saw that ‘whatever his name is’ didn’t seem to be freaking out at all. 

Finally, the game reached the last student before Mr. Wang would have to finish it up. The chubby-cheeked boy calmly took a deep breath and started out by pointing to Felix and stating, “Felix. Koalas.” He proceeded to point to everyone in the circle in turn, stating everything with no hesitation until he was finally able to make his own introduction. 

“And I’m Jisung and I like squirrels.”

‘ _ Jisung! Haha! I remember the name now, _ ’ Felix thought happy that he could finally identify him. He was also super impressed with how easily he played the game. 

“And now we all know each other,” Mr. Wang said once he, too, had repeated everyone’s introductions one last time. “I hope that all of us continue to learn about one another and get along well so that we can make our fall production a good one!”

“Okay, but what is the fall production?” a girl, who Felix remembered went by Rosie, asked. 

Mr. Wang smiled before pulling his shoulders back and puffing out his chest in an attempt to make him look more official. “This year we will be performing  _ Into the Woods _ !”

 

*****

 

The bell signaling the end of 5th period rang, and Seungmin was packing up his Biology textbook so that he could head out to English when a group of three girls walked straight up to him. The tallest one in the middle had red hair, the one to her right had black hair, and the one on the left had blonde hair. Seungmin had to hold in a laugh because they reminded him of the fucking Powerpuff Girls. 

“You’re one of the new kids,” the redhead said. She didn’t ask. It was a statement.

“Yeah… I am,” Seungmin replied as he continued to pack up. He wasn’t really interested in talking to these girls. He could smell their malice. 

“And you were sitting with Hyunjin and Changbin at lunch with the other two,” the blonde added. 

‘ _ Other two? They mean Felix and Woojin? _ ’

Before he had a chance to question it, the last girl cut him off. “You should really leave those two alone. Changbin doesn’t like people except for Hyunjin, so you were probably just annoying him.”

“He only went along with it because Hyunjin brought you guys to their table.”

“Yeah, but Hyunjin is too nice for his own good, he probably just took pity on you new folks since he was new last year, too.”

Seungmin was honestly so confused as to why he was currently being scolded about who he was hanging out with by three girls that didn’t even know him. 

“Do you three have like crushes on Changbin or something? You’re obviously not his friends since you say he doesn’t like people. Or maybe Hyunjin? I guess he does have more of the heartthrob look,” Seungmin questioned only to receive three simultaneous gasps. 

“No! We are just looking out for them as concerned citizens.”

“Their relationship is destined to be, but too fragile to happen if there are annoying pests getting in the way.”

“Just leave the two of them alone!”

And with those last words, they all exited the room. 

‘ _What… in the actual… hell just happened? Relationship? Destiny? Are they dating or something? They didn’t seem like it beforehand, but it’s not like I pay attention to that kind of thing_ ,” Seungmin was left to think. He eventually just shook his head and through his backpack over his shoulders, heading to English. 

When he walked into the classroom just as the bell was ringing, Felix was obviously already there. As soon as Felix made eye contact with him, the freckled boy’s face broke into a smile as he motioned for Seungmin to come sit in the seat his friend saved beside him. 

“What took you so long? I was starting to get worried,” Felix asked. 

Seungmin sighed, “I was stopped by a fan club.”

“A fan club for what?”

“Something stupid,” was all he really felt like saying about it. He was still thinking about the energy he had sensed coming from the three girls. Greed, anger, and lust: a potent combination, but it wasn’t anything that Seungmin hadn’t seen before. Being a demon meant that he could sense when humans were being affected by any of the seven deadly sins, but what was different about the energy this time was his own body’s reaction to it. 

It had made him feel warm but hungry at the same time, and he hated the fact he liked it. 

Truth be told, Seungmin really despised being a demon. Sure he liked to goof off by making fun of people, but it was in a caring manner. He hated the part of him that would tempt him to hurt people. Tempt him to exploit people’s weaknesses, exploit their sins.  

“Okay… Well, anyways, Minho and I got permission to use the family car this afternoon, so we were thinking that the four of us could use it to go into town. It would give us a chance to check out some of those places Hyunjin and Changbin were telling us about,” Felix said excitedly. 

Seungmin was only really half listening to his friend at the moment. “Mhm, sounds good.”

“Are you okay, Minnie? You seem a little out of it.” 

The puppy-faced boy finally snapped out of his thoughts and turned to face his friend. He opened his mouth to say something, not quite sure what he was planning to tell Felix, but still wanting to reassure his friend. Unfortunately, the teacher called the class to be quiet so that she could start her lecture before Seungmin got a chance to say anything. 

He just nodded as reassuring as he could manage and then turned to pay attention to the lesson.

 

*****

 

Changbin was walking to his last class of the day, thankful that his first day back in hell was almost over. Changbin absolutely hated school, but not because he was an outsider. In fact, he convinced himself that he  _ preferred _ being the outsider because fewer people tried to talk to him and that left him more time to read his books. 

No. What he hated about school was the complete and utter waste of time that it was. He was never going to use three-quarters of the things that the school was teaching them, and for the stuff he would actually use, he could have easily taught it to himself along with other things he would actually use. 

He was especially thinking about this fact as he made it to his chemistry class. It wasn’t that chemistry isn’t useful to him in the long run, but he had been learning alchemy since he was in primary school, so the subject wouldn’t teach him anything he didn’t already know.  

When he finally made it to the class, he saw that the desks were lab stations with two seats at every station. Most people who were already in the room had taken seats next to their friends and were chatting up a storm. Changbin, on the other hand, made his way to the empty lab station at the very front of the room by the teacher’s desk where he wasn’t expecting anyone to take the seat next to him because the only person who willingly approaches him is Hyunjin and he also knew that no one wanted to sit this close to the teacher. 

That’s why Changbin was very much surprised when a scrawny boy with a face covered in freckles took the seat next to him. 

“Hey there, Changbin. Looks like we have chemistry together,” he said to the dark haired boy with the widest, happy-go-lucky smile Changbin had ever seen. 

Felix. The new kid who was always happy. 

Changbin’s mind suddenly went back to what Hyunjin had told him as they were walking to their 5th period study hall after lunch. Hyunjin had told him about how  _ the wolf _ had mentioned that the new kids smelt ‘off’—which is a bit vague— to his nose and how Changbin should look into it. 

As much as Changbin hated the fact that  _ Jisung _ was the one telling him what to do, he couldn’t deny the fact that if the insufferable younger was smelling something, there most likely was something up with the new kids. Jisung had an incredibly acute sense of smell even when compared to other werewolves. 

With this information in mind, Changbin was all of a sudden more interested in this class. It gave him time to get close to this mystery boy, Felix, and hopefully learn more about him. For security reasons, only, of course. 

“Fancy seeing you here, Felix. How has your first day at Briardale High been?” he asked to start a conversation. 

“So far so good. I found out that the school musical is going to be Into the Woods which has always been a favorite of mine. I hope I can get a part,” Felix responded enthusiastically. 

“Oh, so you like theater?” ‘ _ Of course this smiley and optimistic boy was a theater geek. _ ’

“Yes! I love it so much, but I haven’t ever been able to be in a play or musical since my family is always moving around.”

Great. He was talking about his family. That’s exactly what Changbin needed to be looking into. “Do you really move around that much? Why would your mom and dad need to move so often if they're psychologists,” Changbin asked curiously. 

“Well actually, it’s my mom and  _ mom _ that move around a lot. My brother and I were adopted,” Felix said with a sheepish smile as he rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Oh, my bad. I’m sorry for assuming,” Changbin hurriedly said back, mentally kicking himself. 

“It’s okay. It is rather untraditional. As for why Dae and Cassie move around so much, it’s because there is a certain type of people that they specialize in helping, and it requires them to travel to these special patients for treatment. They're switching to a more traditional and general practice now, so that’s why we are finally settling down. And then Seungmin and Woojin’s parents have always worked with mine, so they are doing the same,” Felix explained. 

“What kind of special patients?” Changbin questioned more. He was trying to sound as innocently curious as possible but wasn’t sure if he was pulling it off well. Stupid Jisung had always said his acting sucked. 

“Just patients with certain disorders,” Felix shrugged. “I don’t really know the details because I’m not a psychologist.”

“I guess that makes sense. What about Briardale? Why did they decide to settle down here of all places?”

Changbin saw Felix open and close his mouth before he looked at Changbin questioningly. “I-I don’t really know,” he finally said. “Were there any psychiatric clinics here beforehand?”

“I guess not,” Changbin had to admit. 

“Then that’s probably why…” Felix said just as the bell rang signaling the beginning of class and the teacher stood up from his desk and walked to the front of the class. 

“Hello, class,” he said to greet everyone. “I hope you all enjoyed your summer and have had a good first day back. I know that all of you are probably tired, especially since this is your last class of the day, so we aren’t going to do too much. I just want to let you all know that whoever you are sitting next to now is going to be your lab partner for the rest of the year, so I hope you all chose where you sat wisely.”

Felix and Changbin then looked back to each other again and Felix gave the older another sheepish smile before guiltily whispering to him, “I’m going to warn you now, but I suck at science.”

Changbin couldn’t help but grin and laugh at the way Felix had said that like he was burdening Changbin in a way.

“It’s okay,” Changbin said as he absent-mindedly placed a hand on Felix’s knee to reassure him. “I’m pretty good at Chemistry, and I don’t mind helping you.”

Felix’s eyes looked at Changbin’s hand then back to the older’s face which brought Changbin’s own attention to it. “Oh, sorry," Changbin said pulling his hand away, but not before he noticed a very faint hum of magic flowing through the boy. "I guess I’m a bit of a touchy person when it comes to the few friends I have.”

“I’m your friend?” Felix asked as his eyes light up, distracting the older’s thoughts. Changbin swore the younger’s eyes could light up the darkest of nights. 

“Y-yeah.”

“Great because I had thought that you were my friend too, but I wasn’t sure if you felt the same way.”

Both their attentions were pulled back to what the teacher was saying when he started going over lab safety rules and how they would have a test over them by the end of the week so that they could start using lab equipment as soon as possible. When he finished lecturing, he gave the partners times to quiz each other over the safety rules, so that everyone could pass the test. 

As Changbin and Felix were studying together, the warlock completely forgot about his mission to find out more about this mysterious boy and was instead completely caught up in how cutely Felix acted whenever he answered a question incorrectly. 

It wasn’t until the final bell of the day rang, and Felix packed up his things, saying goodbye to Changbin that he even realized exactly how whipped he had been for the boy. 

“ _ What is happening to me? _ ” Changbin questioned himself since he usually didn’t enjoy talking to new people this much. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayeeee. Look at all these different POVs. 
> 
> Got a lil insight into the minds of Seungmin and Changbin. Ooooo.  
> Poor Minnie just wants to live his life peacefully, and I wonder what's got Binnie so distracted?
> 
> Someone needs to limit my Youtube time cause it is causing me too many obsessions too quickly. I don't appreciate it. (But at the same time, I do ;p)
> 
> (And I also gave up on titling these chapters 'cause this story is all over the place. Sue me)


	5. Chapter 5

The sounds of the lockers being opened and then slammed shut rang through the hallways. People were bustling around again, either standing around to talk to their friends about what they were doing after school or trying to get out of the school building as fast as possible. Jisung could only look to the people making their way to the exits of the school with envy as he sighed, shut his own locker, and started walking in the opposite direction towards the gym. 

This was the part of the day that Jisung had been dreading the most ever since he woke up in his messy room that morning. Not the classes. Not running into old friends he would rather not see. Not making an even bigger fool out of himself when talking to his crush for the second year in a row. What Jisung had been dreading all day was football practice. 

At one point in his life, he had found the sport enjoyable, but over the years, Jisung started to develop a love for acting and singing. Much to his father’s disappointment. 

His dad had been the star running back of Briardale high back when he was in high school, so he had obviously wanted Jisung to follow in his footsteps. When Jisung started to ask for acting and singing lessons on top of football practice, he allowed his son to pursue this _hobby_ on the condition the young boy continued playing football for all four years of high school. Jisung was fine with this deal. He was able to do what he loved while also keeping his family happy with him, but at the beginning of freshman year, the other boys on the team started to dislike him more and more. 

Following in his father’s footsteps, Jisung was the running back of the team. A position he was damn good as due to his inhuman speed, agility, and reflexes. Upon joining the high school team, he was immediately made a part of the starting lineup which is almost a completely unheard of accomplishment for a freshman. The last time it happened was when dear old dad was in high school. That was one reason people disliked him. The others were more painful to think about.

Jisung tried to shake these negative thoughts from his head as he turned the corner into another hallway, knowing that just thinking about them would just make his anxiety spike even more. What Jisung had not been expecting was for someone to run around the corner at full speed at the very same moment he did. He felt himself begin to fall backwards, and his first incident was to grab onto something. Anything. So in the next moment, Jisung grabbed onto the stranger’s shirt to try and stop him from falling, but this only brought the person down with him as they both fell to the floor. 

Jisung was pinned to the ground by the weight of a larger unknown body, but as soon as he was able to regain a sense of the situation, he was left looking up into the eyes a boy Jisung had never seen before. 

Jisung was completely speechless. He couldn’t tell if it was because the wind had been knocked out of him during the fall or because of how stunning and close the boy on top of him was. His brunette hair perfectly framed his soft, gentle features. His dark brown eyes shot open wide as they looked down at the boy beneath him in surprise. 

It was a confusing, potentially threatening situation that Jisung was quick to access in the way he knew how. He remembered to breathe in and scented the air around this new boy, smelling for potential threats. What Jisung ended up smelling, however, completely caught him off guard again. 

Nothing. 

Or maybe something. 

But it was so faint that Jisung was sure any other wolf wouldn’t be able to smell it. 

Something sweet, but burnt. Almost like a roasted s’more.

“Don’t think you can get away with this shit, you fag!” they both suddenly heard someone shout at the end of the hall. 

At these words, Jisung’s attention was pulled from the stranger to the end of the hall to see Hyuntek, one of the football team’s linemen, throw the lock room’s door open. He quickly looked back to the stranger and saw his shocked expression turn into one of distaste as he quickly moved to get up. He ended up not getting too far, though, since Jisung still had a strong grip on his shirt. Both of their eyes shot to Jisung’s hands then back to each other’s eyes, and the smaller boy let go quickly while completely flustered. The stranger’s face seemed to change again, but this time, he was sporting a playful smirk.

“I’d love to stay like this a bit longer, too, but I’ve got a devil to dodge at the moment,” he said and added a wink before jumping up quickly.  

‘ _Excuse you?_ ’ Jisung thought to himself but was too flustered to actually say them.

The boy then shouted down the hallway, “You should really consider my offer. You might discover something new about yourself,” and then sprinted off before Hyuntek had a chance to even make it halfway down the hallway.

Jisung stood up quickly and had half a mind to run after the boy. Not because of how beautiful he had been or some stupid shit like that, but because of how seriously he had pissed Jisung off. What kind of disrespectful asshole runs straight into someone, knocks them over, and doesn’t even say sorry?! And he even had the _nerve_ to flirt with him as well? 

What stopped him were the hands that harshly pushed him against the hard, concrete wall. 

“You let him get away,” Hyuntek spit out bitterly. 

Jisung’s breath caught. This was exactly what he had been dreading.

“I d-didn't realize you were chasing him,” Jisung stuttered out. “He just ran into me as he was r-running away from y-you.”

The much larger boy clicked his tongue, and Jisung closed his eyes, expecting a punch to be thrown his way, but the next moment the strong hands were no longer around his shoulder, pinning him to the wall. Jisung visibly relaxed.

“That fucking new kid is a real head case. I swear I’ll beat him to pulp the next time I see him.”

“W-What’d he do?” Jisung asked with a careful tone.

“The dude caught me jerking off in locker room showers, and had the balls to offer to ‘help me out’. Motherfucking homo,” Hyuntek spat out venomously. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been jerking off at school,” Jisung mumbled to himself. However, he regretted that choice as soon as he _did_ feel the impact of a punch to his gut. “ _When will you learn to keep your mouth shut, Jisung!_ ”

Jisung coughed for air as he sunk down the wall. 

“Watch your mouth! I’m sure you would have gotten a kick out of it,” he said as he turned to walk back to the locker room, but not before he looked over his shoulder at Jisung who was weakly sitting on the floor. “See you at practice, _princess_.”

And so it’s begun.

Bullying. 

Everyone at this godforsaken school likes to say that bullying stopped after the bloodsucker came out and ‘normalized being gay’, but Chan didn’t normalize shit. People were just too scared of his influence at school to bully people out in the open now. So instead, they continue to do it in the shadows. 

And everything is worse when it happens in the shadows.

 

*****

 

“So I just texted Cassie and she said that they won’t be home from their new office for another hour and a half which I guess works out fine since that will be a better time to grab dinner anyways,” Felix explained to Seungmin as he looked up from his phone to Seungmin who was currently trying to better organize all the textbooks in his locker. “What should we do until then?”

It took a second for him to respond, but as soon as the OCD demon was satisfied with the way everything was arranged, he shut his locker and turned his attention to Felix. “I don’t really care. You don’t have any homework from any of your classes?”

“Just a math review worksheet because I don’t think any math teacher can go a single day without assigning homework,” the smaller boy rolled his eyes. He wasn’t a huge fan of maths as well as science. 

Seungmin let out a small laugh and added, “I guess every math teacher at every school is the same. I got a similar worksheet. Why don’t we just get our homework out of the way since we have the time.”

“Great idea,” Woojin said as he suddenly came up next to them. “That’s very responsible of you, Seungmin.”

The demon just rolled his eyes at his brother. “When have I ever not been responsible when it comes to school? I goof off _and_ get shit done, thank you very much.”

“Okay, okay. I wasn’t too sure after you started falling behind at our last school.”

“That was because it was a city school and the student population was huge. Too many distracting auras stressing me out,” Seungmin muttered. 

Woojin’s teasing demeanor immediately softened as he gave his brother a sympathetic look instead. “Is puberty making your demon abilities harder to control?” he suddenly asked. 

“Wha-what the hell are you saying?” Seungmin said flustered. 

“It’s perfectly natural, Seungmin. I went through it with my angel abilities, Felix is going through it, it’s a perfectly normal th-”

“Gahhh, would you shut up! That’s not something you just talk about,” Seungmin shouted as he shoved his hand over Woojin’s mouth. Felix was just standing silently to the side with a slight blush in his cheeks. 

There was an awkward silence for a moment between them as Woojin stared at Seungmin who still had his hand over the elder’s mouth. The silence was soon broken, though, as someone came sprinting out of the hallway next to them. 

All three of them immediately turned and recognized the running boy as Minho. He seemed to spot all three of them in the next moment, too, because as soon as he spotted them, he stopped running and hid in a slightly crouched position behind all of them. After taking only a few seconds to catch his breath, he stood up slightly and looked over Felix’s shoulder.

“Where on earth have you been this entire day?” Felix asked his brother with a nagging tone. ‘ _Was he at school this whole time and just didn’t bother going to class?_ ’

“Shhh. Someone was chasing me just now.” 

At those words, they all followed Minho’s gaze back to the hallway he had just run out of but no one seemed to emerge. 

“Hmm,” Minho said as his he stood up straight from where he had been hiding behind his little brother sounding almost disappointed. “Guess he gave up.” 

“You’ve been at this school for one, singular day, and you’ve already pissed someone off enough to chase you down?” Woojin turned back to Minho to ask. When Minho just grinned back at him as if he had just been given some sort of compliment, the oldest covered his face with the palms of his hands. “Why are you like this?”

“Eh, the guy was a dick. He totally deserved to be messed with,” Minho said with a shrug and then leaned against the lockers with his arms crossed over his chest. 

“You totally just ignored my question,” Felix said, obviously annoyed.

“About where I was all day?” Minho verified and Felix nodded. “I was here and there,” he said while maintaining his relaxed demeanor. 

“How very specific of you,” Seungmin said sarcastically. 

“If you really want to know, I went _exploring_.”

“You went into the woods, didn’t you? Even though Dae and Cassie specifically told you not to,” Felix said bluntly. He knew his brother well enough to know that if you tell him he shouldn’t be somewhere, he will most definitely make a conscious effort to be there. 

“Your parents told you to avoid the woods, too, huh?” Seungmin said. It wasn’t really a question. More like a thought he was considering aloud.  

“Well, I went anyway. What can I say? I’m a curious cat.”

“You do realize the saying is ‘curiosity _killed_ the cat’, right?” Woojin stated as the voice of reason yet again. 

“It’s a good thing cats have nine lives, then,” Minho shot back. Felix shook his head in disbelief. He was honestly used to Minho’s no care attitude by now, but it still managed to baffle him to no end. 

“Well did you find anything interesting, at least?” Seungmin curiously asked. 

“Nah, just typical stuff you would find in the woods,” Minho answered as his smirk expression settled into one of thought. “There was this weird fox, though. It didn’t run away when it saw me like most animals do. Instead, it just stood there, looking at me. Almost like it was curious about me. It even let be get pretty close to it, but I stepped on a branch, scaring it off before I got close enough to touch it.”

Seungmin just shrugged and turned to walk towards the school’s exit, “Animals are just weird. Doesn’t seem too odd to me. Let’s get going.”

Felix took that opportunity to catch Minho and Woojin up on what plan they had made, and then Minho tried coercing Seungmin into letting him copy his math homework. Seungmin obviously refused each attempt Minho made. 

They got back to their houses and split up. Felix sat down in the kitchen to work on his worksheet, and after Minho finally gave up on convincing Seungmin to give him answers over the phone, he reluctantly sat down across from Felix. 

Minho finished the worksheet long before Felix made his way through his own because as much as Minho didn’t like school, he was actually very smart. He had to be considering how much he missed class but still managed to pass. Minho just didn’t like to sit still long enough to make it through a full day of classes. Felix might get annoyed whenever Minho does skip class, but he has also always been jealous of how perfectly he pulls it off. 

“I’m going to go look through the boxes still left in the garage for my dreamcatcher. Hopefully, it’s there and it didn’t get left behind,” Minho said as he put his pencil down and stood up. 

“Why didn’t you tell Dae and Cassie this morning that you couldn’t find it? If it’s really gone, you need to tell them so they can get you a new one,” Felix questioned. He had forgotten about that moment until now, but the fact Minho brushed it off that morning confused him. 

“It isn’t that important. I either find it or I don’t. I don’t need to tell them about it yet.” Minho said not too convincingly. 

“You can’t sleep without it, Minho. That’s pretty important.”

“You don’t know that. Maybe last night was just a one-time thing? I haven’t slept without the dream catcher in almost ten years, so maybe my mind went into shock for the first night only?” Minho said rapidly with his back turned to the younger. “I’m not the same seven-year-old I was when Cassie and Dae first took me in, so I shouldn’t need it anymore. Maybe me losing it was just the world telling me I need to finally grow up and stop relying on something as lucrative as magic.” And then he stormed off to the garage. 

Felix heard the emotion that had been in Minho’s voice and he didn’t like it. 

Despite all their bickering, the adopted brothers have always been very close to one another. Minho, always so carefree, would always be there to cheer Felix up whenever he was in a bad place. Felix, on the other hand, didn’t know how to cheer Minho up when he was sad mainly because Minho always put up a front and shut the younger out whenever he would start to feel. 

Felix could tell when he did this. Minho might be lying to himself, but his shaky voice always betrayed him. So he just sighed in defeat, knowing that pushing Minho any further wouldn’t get them anywhere, and continued his homework. 

When he finally did finish, he still had fifteen minutes left before parents would get home with the car, so Felix took that time to go up to his room and clean himself up a bit more because there is no need to go out looking like you just sat through an entire day of _high school_.

*****

 

Minho had practically torn the entire garage apart by the time the garage door slowly opened, revealing Dae and Cassie sitting in the car. Minho looked up like a deer caught in the headlights as he looked back that their confused faces. 

‘ _Dammit_ ,’ he thought, unsure of how he was going to maneuver his way out of explaining this one. 

Dae, who was driving, parked the car and both of them stepped out as they looked at the state of the garage in shock. 

“What the heck were you doing, Minho?” Cassie asked.

“I was, uh, unpacking the last of the boxes,” Minho responded, but he knew he didn’t sound too convincing. 

“I think your definition of ‘unpacking’ is a bit skewed, darling,” Dae said as she picked up a crossbow and a cooking pan up from the ground. “Simply removing something from its box does not count as unpacking. Were you looking for something?”

“No,” Minho responded almost too quickly. Cassie raised an eyebrow. 

At that moment, the door that leads into the house opened and Felix joined them. He also seemed a bit shocked at the state of it, but his expression immediately changed before he looked to Minho. 

“I told you to find me a pair of scissors, Minho, not ransack the moving boxes,” Felix said exasperated. 

Minho didn’t really know what to say in response, but Felix gave him a look that said ‘ _just go with it_ ’, so he did. “Yeah… sorry about that. I just couldn’t find a pair.”

“What did you need scissors for?” Dae questioned. 

“A string on my sweater came loose and I needed to cut it,” Felix explained as he stuck out his arm. Sure enough, there was a thread of light blue string hanging from the oversized sweater he currently had on.

Cassie picked up a silver knife that had been thrown from its box and tossed it to Felix who expertly caught it by the handle. “You can use that,” she said before turning to the older boy. “I want you to clean this place back up before you leave. Dae, stop doing his job for him.” The taller woman froze as she was putting items back into their boxes before standing up with a sheepish smile.   

“We will clean everything up when we get back, Mom. We have plans with Woojin and Seungmin that were already pushed back,” Felix said while blinking his round, glossy eyes. 

Minho’s confusion turned into amusement as he witnessed innocent Felix manipulating their parents for his own gain. Cassie loved it when they actually called her or Dae mom. 

“And we won’t even be out too late because of that curfew you gave us, so I’ll have plenty of time to clean before I go to sleep,” Minho added. 

Cassie exchanged glances with her wife, the two of them having a silent conversation with their eyes before she turned back to the boys and asked, “Have you already finished your homework?”

“Yup,” they responded at the same time. 

“Fine then, but be back by nine like we agreed this morning,” she said with a defeated sigh. 

“Of course! Thank you so much!” Felix exclaimed with an adorable smile as he grabbed onto Minho’s arm and pulled him towards the car. “Let’s get going.”

Minho was then pushed towards the driver’s seat just before Felix ran around the car to hop in on the passenger’s side. Minho understood that Felix wanted to leave as soon as possible before Cassie changed her mind, so the older quickly started the car and started backing out of the driveway. 

Once they were parked in front of the Kim’s yard, waiting for their friends to arrive, Minho turned to his brother. 

“Thanks for that save back there. That was actually kind of impressive. I didn’t expect you to have the ability to lie like that in you.”

“Don’t sweat it. It was just a little improv,” Felix said with a coy smile to himself. 

Minho just laughed at this new side he was seeing from the younger boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Those of you that read both my stories: Look at me being all active this week ^.^ 
> 
> Getting more into the charactersss. Minsung are both pretty big messes in this book. Actually, most characters are messes in this book, but who doesn't love a complex character. :p


	6. Chapter 6

It only took about ten minutes for Minho to drive them into town following the directions Felix provided. As they were driving down one of the main streets, Minho looked around and was shocked by the number of people they saw bustling in and out of the various buildings. There were a few bars, cafés, an old fashioned theater, an arcade, and a variety of small trinket shops. It was a very quaint sight to see. 

“Damn. It looks like all of Briardale is here,” Seungmin pointed out as he spotted a large group of students making their way into the arcade. 

“There’s nothing else interesting to do in this tiny town, so I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone just has a place here where they hang out every afternoon,” Minho reasoned and he saw Seungmin and Woojin nod their heads in agreement through the rearview mirror. 

Felix, on the other hand, wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation or the busy streets because he was too busy frantically looking between the navigation app on his smartphone and the signs above each building they passed.

Minho looked over to his confused, younger brother and had to fight the urge to let out a giggle at his actions. “Where are we even going?” Minho asked instead as he made his way further down the active streets. 

“There was a café that serves boba Changbin and Hyunjin were telling us about at lunch, and I wanted to check it out,” Felix explained. 

“Changbin and who now?” 

“Changbin and Hyunjin. They were who we ate lunch with while you were off ‘ _ exploring _ ’,” Felix explained. 

“People actually spoke to you instead of just giving you weird stares?” Minho asked surprised. 

“Yes, Minho. Some people were actually really nice and welcoming to us,” Woojin said from the back seat. “Maybe if you had stuck around, you would have made a few new friends.”

“I doubt Changbin and Hyunjin would have been that welcoming to us if Minho  _ had  _ been there, so maybe it was better this way,” Seungmin said teasingly. 

Minho just shrugged. “I don’t care unless they were hot.”

“Of course that’s all you care about. It’s  _ definitely _ a good thing he wasn’t there, then, because he would have been all over Hyun-,” Seungmin started to add until Felix interrupted.

“This is it!” Felix suddenly shouted as he pointed to a building that had a striped blue and white canopy over the entrance. “Park in the lot on this corner.”

Minho followed Felix’s instructions and pulled into the parking lot next to the café, forgetting about the conversation they were just having. After exiting the car, they made their way to the entrance, and a soft bell jingled a warm welcome to them as soon as they opened to the café’s door. The atmosphere inside was very relaxed with booths lined up next to the front window, circular tables with cushion seats scattered within, and there was even a sitting area with couches and armchairs towards the back.

“Oh my god,” Felix said in awe. “I love it here.”

“It is rather cozy,” Woojin nodded in agreement and Seungmin also seemed to really enjoy the calm atmosphere.

Minho just rolled his eyes in reaction to his friends’ love of the place. There were only a handful of people inside the small building, most of them either having one on one, intimate chats with a friend or off to themselves, reading or working on something. It was too peaceful for his own personal taste. 

After taking time to look at the menu, they each ordered some bubble tea and a poke bowl and then sat down in one of the booths since it gave them a good view of what was going on in the streets. 

They were all quiet at first, only really speaking to compliment the food. Minho did have to admit that the food at the place made the trip worth it. He had ordered a cappuccino milk tea while Felix had gotten strawberry, Woojin got coconut, and Seungmin got watermelon.

Once all of them started to finish eating, conversation resumed and they were back to talking about random things and teasing each other. The four of them could go on and on for hours about the most stupid topics even though they were all so different from each other, but that’s just the way their friendship works. Before they knew it, they had been at the café for almost two hours and the sun was starting to set outside. 

“What should we do now?” Woojin asked as he looked outside and saw that it was getting darker. 

“We still have around an hour and a half before we have to start heading back, so why don’t we walk around town,” Felix suggested as he glanced at the time on his phone. 

It took Minho no time at all to stand up out of his seat, ready to be moving again. “Yes! About damn time. We came here to explore the town and all we have done is sit around.”

They took to the streets after that. It was even busier than before now that more people were off from work and students that had extra curriculars were freed from school. As they walked around the town, they noticed that even here, people seemed to realize that they were newcomers and gave them wary stares as a result, but they didn’t let that get to them as continued to look around, unbothered. They looked at all the different trinkets being sold in various shop windows, making fun of some of the weirder things being sold in antique shops, and they took note of different places they wanted to visit, such as the arcade and the theater. 

They were about to turn around, and head back the way they had come so that they could check out everything on the other side of the streets when Minho spotted a larger building that was bustling with people, the sign on the front of the building read Wolf’s Den in big blue lights. 

“Hey guys, we should go there,” Minho said as he nudged Woojin who was next to him and everyone else’s eyes followed where he was pointing.

“Uhh… I don’t know,” Felix said nervously. “Changbin said that we should avoid that place since it’s where all the football players, cheerleaders, and other elitist type popular kids hang out.”

Minho just smirked at hearing that. “Seems like my kind of place.”

“You’re not an elitist type popular kid,” Woojin said pointed out bluntly. 

“God no, but they are my favorite type of people to fuck with,” he said back as he took off towards the building without waiting for the others. 

There was a large group of girls who appeared to be cheerleaders standing just to the right of the main entrance to the building who all gave Minho various looks. Some seemed to be glaring at him coldly while a few others appeared to be checking him out. And he couldn’t blame them because Minho knew how hot he was. Enjoying the positive and negative attention he was receiving, he sent a wink in their direction before disappearing into the building. 

Once inside, his senses were immediately overwhelmed with the smell of greasy food and alcohol as well as the sound of people talking loudly over each other and music. The interior reminded Minho of a honkey tonk bar with its long, wooden bar against the left wall, high top tables scattered around the middle, and leather boothes to the right side. In the back of the restaurant there were multiple pool tables being used by people of all ages, old pinball machines in the back corners, and a jukebox right next to the cue rack.  

‘ _ Now  _ this _ was my type of place _ ,’ Minho thought as he wondered in further. Eventually, Woojin walked up beside him, Felix and Seungmin following close behind. 

“So you guys decided to come after all,” Minho said with a raised eyebrow and a smirk as he stopped walking further into the busy place. 

“Don’t be so full of yourself,” Woojin scoffed. “As much as I said I am done bailing you out of trouble, you still have the car keys, so I didn’t have much choice.”

Minho then looked to Seungmin, his usual partner in crime for these sorts of things since Seungmin did enjoy causing mischief for people that deserve it, but Minho’s smirk faltered when he saw that Seungmin almost looked… nervous?

Minho nudged the younger with his shoulder and asked, “Are you okay?”

That caused him to snap out of whatever trance he was in because in the next instant, the nervous expression was gone and replaced with one of the boy’s signature smiles. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just zoned out for a second,” Seungmin explained not too convincingly. 

Minho could tell there was something wrong with the younger, but before he could ask Seungmin again, someone bumped into his shoulder and a tray filled with drinks went crashing to the ground. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” The waiter who had just crashed into Minho said hurriedly as he kneeled down to pick up the cups that were rolling around on the floor. Minho leaned down himself to pick up a cup that wound up by his foot. 

“You’re okay. You should be a bit more careful about where you’re going, though, especially when it’s this busy,” Minho said as he turned to return the cup he had just picked up. At the same moment, the clumsy waiter also turned around so that their faces were suddenly just a few inches apart from each other. 

Both of their eyes widened in surprise, as they simultaneously said, “You!”, and then the waiter boy immediately backed away and stood up as if he had gotten too close to something that burned him. 

“Hello to you, too,” Minho said with a chuckle as he stood up from his crouched position, brushing off his ripped jeans.

 “Jisung? You work here? And you know my brother?” Felix questioned as he, too, recognized the boy. 

‘ _ So Jisung is his name _ ,’ Minho thought.

“Kind of,” Jisung started as he placed the cups he had collected back onto the tray he was carrying. “This asshole practically ran me over and then took off without so much as an apology.”

Minho had to admit he was amused by the smaller boy’s attitude after his first impression had been that of a flustered mess. He couldn’t help himself from trying to push the boy’s buttons a bit more. 

“Hey, no need to get all sassy with me for triggering your panicked gay,” Minho teased as he put his hands up in the position of surrender. 

The blush that made its way to Jisung’s checks despite the scowl he was giving Minho was probably just about the cutest thing he had ever seen. 

“You know what?” Jisung snapped as he huffed his chest out to make himself more intimidating. “I’m not sorry for bumping into you. You fucking deserved it.”

“Ooo. Feisty. I like.”

At those words Jisung and Minho entered into a staring contest, the smaller boy trying to be intimidating while Minho lazily met his gaze. At least until they were interrupted by a faintly familiar, annoying shout. 

“Oi! Jisung! Get the hell over here with our drinks!”

Minho turned in the direction of the shout and saw none other than the dumbass football player he’d caught jerking off in the gym locker room earlier that day standing around a pool table with a bunch of other high schoolers, presumably other football players. Minho clicked his tongue, obviously annoyed at this wannabe tough guy for interrupting him for the second time now.  

What did amuse Minho, however, was the look that spread across the big guy’s face as soon as they made eye contact. Full of anger and ready for a fight. 

“Dammit,” Minho suddenly heard Jisung say beside him. He turned to look at the boy who was frantically glancing between the empty cups on his tray and the approaching football player who had put his cue down and started walking towards them with two of his buddies on either side of him. Minho especially didn’t like how wide and fearful Jisung’s eyes currently were. 

“Ha! I knew it. I guess the fag was your boyfriend after all, Jisung,” the big guy said as he came within earshot. 

Minho narrowed his eyes. He really hated that word. 

“No! It’s n-not like that, H-H-Hyuntek. I just ran into him on m-my way to give you guy’s your drinks,” Jisung stuttered just barely audible. 

Hyuntek looked around the floor and realized he was currently standing in a puddle of different soft drinks before he turned back to Minho with a pissed off expression. “So you have the balls to first say some gay ass nonsense to me in the locker rooms earlier today and then you go and spill our drinks all over the ground messing up my high tops?”

Minho’s expression turned to one of indifference as he eyed this guy named Hyuntek up and down. “And your point is…?”

Woojin, who had been completely quiet up until then, took a step forward, holding his hand out in front of Minho in a small attempt to stop him from a fight. 

“Easy there, guys,” he said calmly and then turned to Hyuntek. “You will have to excuse my friend. He has zero brain cells and also has the tendency to run his mouth off when he shouldn’t. I’m sure we can work this all out if we just apologize and calmly talk this out with one another.” 

Minho just rolled his eyes at Woojin’s typical attempt at peacemaking. Out of the corner of his eye he also noticed that some people were starting to give them attention. 

“Can we just go guys,” Felix whisper shouted as he held onto Seungmin’s arm, hiding most of his small body behind the demon’s. Felix might know how to fight just fine, but he still hated confrontation and violence.

“No, you newbies can’t leave just yet,” Hyuntek said as his expression shifted from pissed off to a coy smile. “I have to teach you guys the lay of the land somehow, but we just might be able to avoid a beating if you do like your smart friend suggested and get on your hands and knees and beg for forgiveness.”

“That is not at all what I said,” Woojin muttered. 

“Can we just not do this right now,” Jisung pleaded as he glanced nervously between the brewing fight and the other patrons who were watching. 

Minho just shrugged as his attention was still fully on Hyuntek, “I mean if you want me on my hands and knees, begging, you’re going to have to do a hell of a lot more foreplay and be a hundred times more attractive than you are now. Jeez, you offer to help a fellow guy in need out one time and all of a sudden they think they are entitled to something.”

At that Hyuntek snapped and a fist was being thrown as Minho’s face in the next instant. A big mistake. Minho effortlessly dodged the punch, side stepped, and landed a hook to the taller’s side before he even knew what happened. Woojin just sighed, knowing that there was no stopping chaos from ensuing now. 

“I would advise against trying to land a punch on me. I’ve been to a shit ton of schools and made a shit ton of enemies, and none of them have ever been able to hit me,” Minho said as he stepped back from Hyuntek who was clutching his side in pain. 

“Big mistake, you piece of shit. You  _ and _ your friends are screwed.”

After he said that, he motioned to about six other built football players back by the pool table and they started making their way towards them. That made the fight nine verses four. Those odds were manageable, but only possible if the others decided to fight with him. 

Hyuntek came at Minho again, and he just dodged this time, not bothering to counter punch. The two goons who had been standing directly behind him the whole time warily turned their attention to Woojin who honestly looked a lot more intimidating than Minho ever would. 

“This is what I freaking get for trying to bail you out of trouble again. Why don’t I just listen to myself already and stop!” Woojin shouted at Minho as he dodged and blocked the double team trying to fight against him. 

Minho had Hyuntek stumbling all over the place because Minho would just dodge every hit thrown at him, leaving the taller hitting the air and throwing himself off balance. Whilst fighting, he looked to the side where Jisung had been before and realized the cute boy had disappeared. He probably ran off to tell a manager about the fight and get them kicked out. 

The six other football players had only just made their way to where they were when all of a sudden, water was being thrown into Hyuntek’s face, and an arm was dragging Minho backwards towards the exit. 

“Felix?” Minho questioned as he looked to his brother pulling him away from the fight. Seungmin and Woojin had tagged teamed a few guys to the ground before they turned around and started sprinting towards the exit themselves. 

“As much as I know you love showing off, we have to be home soon, and no way I’m getting in trouble for your bullshit,” Felix shouted. 

The four of them made it outside, Woojin being the last one out and yelling at the rest of them to run. They followed his command and took off in a sprint down the street, and within seconds, all nine of their pursuers were running out of the doorway, as well. 

They ran as fast as they could, heading back towards the parking lot where they had parked the car until they reached a cross section that currently had cars driving through and blocking the way. With no time to spare waiting for the light to change, they turned the corner and ran down a side street that took them away from the town and instead towards the woods. 

The four of them didn’t even have time to discuss the fact that they were heading in the exact direction they were forbidden to go because their pursuers were right on their heels. 

As soon as they made it past the tree line, Seungmin and Woojin were the only two able to see since the tree leaves blocked out the half moon and the street lights from the town as they grew further and further away. Minho grabbed onto Woojin’s hand and Felix held onto Seungmin’s as the Kim brothers guided them deeper into the unknown.

“I don’t think they’re following us anymore,” Felix panted as he and Seungmin came to a stop. Woojin and Minho followed suit and looked back in the direction of the town. 

“I don’t think they ever followed us past the trees,” Seungmin said. 

“They scared of the dark or something?” Minho teased as his eyes started to adjust to the point he should make out the shadows of his friends. Felix seemed to be bent over, catching his breath, but as soon as he stood up straight he yelped. 

“What? What’s wrong?” Woojin quickly asked, worried. 

“The trees… they’re… glowing,” Felix said with a voice of disbelief.

“Uh, no they’re not, Lix,” Minho said as he looked into the darkness, confused. Minho then slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, turning it onto flashlight mode. 

“I could have swore there was like this green dim light coating all the trees just now,” Felix said. Minho could now see the panic written all over the younger’s face. 

“That was probably just a fairy ability of yours. Aren’t you supposed to have a connection with nature or something like that?” Seungmin proposed and the older two nodded in agreement. 

“Yeah, Cassie tells you all the time that trees will start to talk to you and weird shit like that. They were probably just being nice and lighting the way for you,” Minho shrugged. “But what do I know about fairy magic and how nice trees are.”

“I guess you’re right…” was all the halfling fairy said in response. He seemed to be in shock about the sudden bout of magic. 

A silence filled the night as they all hesitated on what their next move would be. They could head back the way they came, but their pursuers could just be waiting for them at the forest’s edge. They could try to find another way back to the car, but their is the possibility they would get lost and not get home in time for curfew. Minho checked the time on his phone and saw it was 8:38 meaning that they had twelve minutes to get back to the car since it was a ten minute drive home. 

He was about to break the silence and tell everyone else the time when someone shouting nearby beat him to it. And then there was the scream of someone in pain. They all looked to each other for a split second before they all took off towards the scream, all of them having been trained to react immediately in situations like these by their parents. 

Minho wasn’t sure what they were expecting to find, but they were definitely surprised. 

A figure wearing all black was crouched on the ground, holding his face in their hands. They seemed to be shaking, maybe crying? Minho wasn’t quite sure in the dark, so he moved his phone flashlight to shine directly on the mystery figure. 

A big mistake on his part because in the next instant, the figure snapped their head up to reveal a boy with bleach blonde hair, pale white skin, blood red eyes, and long sharp fangs. 

A vampire. 

And he was  _ hungry _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you that don't know what a poke bowl is, its a Hawaiian dish that is very very tasty.  
> There is a boba/poke/ice cream place near where I live that I totally just wrote into my story because I love it so so much. My favorite boba flavors are the Cappuccino Milk tea and Taro Milk tea. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. Things be gettin spicy <3
> 
> I am trying to start a schedule with this fic of updating it once a week, so be on the lookout every Sunday/Monday for an update hehe.


	7. Chapter 7

Everything became quiet in the indoor swimming complex as the last few members of the swim team exited the building, leaving Chan and Hyunjin to turn off everything and lock up. Or at least that’s what everyone thought the two of them did once everyone went home. 

Chan made his way over to the power board and cut all the lights to the building as Hyunjin removed his shirt, shorts, and even his underwear which he had changed into while they were in the locker room for ‘appearances’. All that remained on the boy’s body were the two bracelets of black braided cord infused with various alchemical potions. The bracelets had been a gift to Hyunjin from Changbin, and most people thought he never took them off. 

However, it wasn’t long before Hyunjin unclasped one bracelet from around his wrist causing the transformation to start. The boy’s pitch black hair began to grow until the ends reached all the way down his back, a dark blue back fin slowly emerged itself along his spine, the curve of his ears sharpened into a point, and his darker brown eyes turned a bluish green, the color of the ocean. Once his body settled in that half state of transformation, Hyunjin unclasped the second bracelet to rid himself entirely of the glamour. 

“Are you decent?” Chan asked since he had his back to Hyunjin the entire time, giving him privacy. 

“Yep. No junk, just a tail,” Hyunjin called out with a giggle followed by a splash as he dropped himself into the pool. 

Chan took that as the go ahead to turn around, and immediately his eyes made contact with the tail Hyunjin had been talking about. It’s fins and scales around the bottom of the tail were a dark, navy blue, but the scales became lighter and lighter as they made their way up Hyunjin’s body so that they were the color of the sky around his torso. Even though Chan had seen the sight practically every day after swim practice the year prior, the sight of the younger boy swimming gracefully under the water still held the vampire completely captivated. Especially since he hadn’t seen it all summer long.

He could also tell that Hyunjin was finally in his element when he resurfaced with a huge smile on his face. “Damn, I’ve missed this,” Hyunjin said with a sigh as he floated on his back in the water. “I can’t believe they had the indoor pool closed all summer for ‘maintenance’ leaving the outdoor pool on the other side of town as the only decent swimming option. Stupid high schoolers break into that pool after it's closed all summer long to the point it’s impossible to swim without my glamour!” 

“Aren’t you also a stupid high schooler breaking into a swimming pool after closing hours?” Chan asked with a smirk. 

Hyunjin just sent a glare Chan’s way that practically screamed ‘I’ll kill you’.

Chan just rolled his eyes at the pouty fish in the water. “Careful there. Your killer siren side is showing.”

“If my song worked on supernaturals, I would have drowned you a long time ago,” Hyunjin muttered as he used his tail to splash water at the older. 

“Wow. Is this the thanks I get for letting you use the pool every day after practice?”

“Mhmmm,” Hyunjin giggled, obviously kidding. Chan laughed along with him then turned to grab his bag of stuff so he could head home. 

The friendship between the two of them was rather odd since Hyunjin was best friends with Changbin and even lived with the Seo family, yet despite the warlock hating the vampire’s guts, Changbin also seemed really okay about the fact Chan helped Hyunjin find time where he can swim on his own in his true form. 

Hyunjin had explained to Chan when they started their arrangement that Changbin didn’t want to interfere when it came to the siren making new friends in Briardale. Hyunjin even complained regularly about the fact Changbin pushed him to spend more time with other people  since Changbin was aware of how much of a social outcast he was and didn’t want to drag Hyunjin down with him when he had the chance to make new friends. It was obvious to Chan that the siren only complained about this because he  _ liked  _ Changbin and wanted to spend as much time with the warlock as he could because of those feelings. It was honestly ridiculous that Changbin was so clueless.

“Oh, Chan!” The vampire’s attention was pulled back to the present as Hyunjin stopped him from leaving. “Before you go I have something I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I couldn’t since we weren’t, you know, alone.” 

“What is it?” Chan asked as the younger swam over to the edge of the pool to lay his elbows on the ledge. 

“Earlier today, I had P.E. class with Jisung and two of the new kids, Felix and Seungmin,” Hyunjin started.

Chan suddenly stopped packing up and became very interested at the mention of Jisung’s name. He really couldn’t help himself from feeling happy whenever he heard anything about how his old friends were doing. It was one of the reasons he loved this time with Hyunjin so much since the siren served as a somewhat ‘middle man’ between the three of them. Even though Jisung and Changbin didn’t want to talk to him, he still cared about them greatly. 

“Mhm. I had two classes with Woojin. I think he said Seungmin was his little brother,” Chan said thinking back to when he’d met Woojin that morning. He had thought the new kid was extremely kind and easy to talk to. The two of them had gone on and on about multiple random topics during the limited time they had to speak to each other as Chan was showing the new boy around the school. Woojin also had an adorable and toothy smile which was almost too much for Chan’s hopeless heart. 

“Yeah, he is. Anyways, Jisung was being all antsy and rude to them, and I thought it was just because they were new, but later he told me it was because their scents were weird.”

Chan raised his eyebrow at that. “Does he think they’re supernaturals?”

“He doesn’t know what they are. In fact, he wanted me to warn Changbin that they might be hunters so he and his family should look into them more.” 

“What do you think about them?” Chan asked. Woojin really didn’t seem like the type to have a double life, killing ‘monsters’ in his spare time. He also knew Jisung was the type to jump to quick conclusions, so he wanted a second opinion on them from Hyunjin.

The siren just shrugged. “I don’t know about whether or not they are hunters, but I know they aren’t supernaturals. Or at least Felix isn’t. I couldn’t tell with Seungmin and Woojin and I never met Felix’s older brother.”

“How do you know?”

“Felix was totally getting caught up in my voice during lunch. I was eating with Woojin and Seungmin, too, but they seem like the types to have poker faces, so I couldn’t tell for sure with them.”

Chan nodded, thinking about this new bit of information. He knew that Hyunjin didn’t have very good control over whether or not he used magic in his words mainly because he had grown up in the ocean and didn’t have to care about limiting his magic until he came to live on land last year after Changbin saved his life. If Felix was affected, he should be human. 

“Thank you for telling me,” Chan finally said as he finished gathering his stuff. “I know you didn’t have to since Jisung only told you to tell Changbin.”

“It’s no problem. It was supernatural related, so it includes you. To be honest, I’ve lived here a year and I still don’t understand this whole rivalry going on between the three of you and your families.”

Chan sighed, “It’s been that way for centuries, and no one knows why. Not even my parents know and they’ve been around for over a hundred years. My grandparents might, but they’d never tell even if they did. They like it the way it is.”

“Yeah, but you don’t feel the same way, do you Chan?” Hyunjin suddenly asked in a very serious tone as he looked to Chan. The few emergency lights that were still on in the pool cast an ominous glow into the siren’s ocean colored eyes. The sight looked as if the fish boy was looking directly into his soul, and it caused a shiver to run down his spine. 

“No, I don’t. Never have,” replied back in a solemn and serious voice.  

“Then why do Changbin and Jisung hate you and each other so much? I’ve asked all three of you before, and none of you ever give me an answer.”

Chan just sighed and turned around, looking as if he was going to leave without saying anything else, but before he started walking away he said, “I definitely can’t be the one to tell you since it’s not my story to tell. I’m just the idiot who let it happen.”

 

*****

 

The drive home was short since everything was close to everything in this small town, so Chan was still thinking about everything Hyunjin had told him about the new kids as he absent-mindedly made his way inside his family’s mansion. However, he quickly snapped out of his absent-minded state when a smell overwhelmed his senses as he walked into the house.  

Blood. Human blood. 

Chan’s eyes widened and he quickly used his superhuman speed to run back out the way he’d come in and continued to run until he made it far into the woods behind his house. 

“Shit,” Chan muttered as he balanced himself against a tree. He had forgotten that tonight was one of the nights the rest of his family fed. Unlike Chan, who could only drink animal blood, his parents, grandparents, and two younger siblings drank human blood from the local blood bank three times a week for food. An event that Chan had to be out of the house for, or he risked giving in and drinking human blood too. 

No one in Chan’s family could explain why human blood sent him off on an uncontrollable killing streak, but ever since the age of ten, Chan hasn’t been able to drink blood belonging to a human without turning into Jack the Ripper the next day. Sure, drinking animal blood instead of human blood shortened Chan’s life span since, unlike in books and movies, vampires can die of old age. They  _ do _ have a life span that is roughly three times that of a human, though, but it was human blood that maintained their bodies for so long. Chan, on the other hand, would gladly die at the good age of one hundred and fifty rather than unwillingly be a mass murderer for three hundred years. 

Eventually, he managed to stabilize his breathing and calm the thirst triggered by the smell of human blood in his house, he looked around the now dark woods, questioning what he should do. Usually he would hunt for his own food while his family eats, but he had an unscheduled meal after his walk the evening before.

After a while of debating what to do, Chan decided to just walk into the downtown area since it wasn’t too far if he took the shortcut through the woods. He was friends with pretty much everyone at school, so he figured he would be able to find something to distract him for the evening. 

At least, that was what he planned to do until a new, intoxicating scent filled the air. It was definitely blood, but this time it smelled more like it belonged to an animal. Before Chan could even fully comprehend his actions, he followed the scent until he came to a nearby creek. Laying in the base of the creek he saw a small fox desperately struggling to free its front paw from underneath a rock that must have rolled off the side of the creek onto the unsuspecting animal. 

The paw was definitely bleeding because Chan could smell the scent of iron in the air and was licking his lips at the thought of a taste. He was ready to pounce despite the fact he had eaten the night before when all of a sudden the blood’s smell changed. It smelt more human. And sure enough, in the next instant, there no longer was a fox with a front paw stuck under a rock, but a naked boy with fluffy ears and a tail who had his  _ hand _ trapped under a rock. 

Chan froze as the boy used his untrapped arm to push the rock off of him. It was pitch dark, but his night vision allowed him to see when the boy brought his obviously bloodied hand in front of him and grimaced at it. Chan’s eyes locked onto the red. 

Chan let out a struggled breath to the point it was honestly more of a wheeze and the boy suddenly lifted his head to make eye contact with the vampire. His eyes widened into a look of pure terror. Chan could only assume his eyes must have started to glow red from hunger. 

“Vampire,” the boy said so softly it was almost impossible to hear, but Chan had, and it triggered him into action. In the next moment, Chan was in the creek and pinning the mysterious fox hybrid boy to the ground by his shoulders, causing him to yelp. 

Chan wasn’t in the right headspace to care if he was scaring the poor boy or not, but now that he was so close to his face, he was finally able to get a good look at the boy beneath him.

He was adorable. He had wavy, golden hair the same color as the fur on his fox ears, and his eyes so dark they were almost black. The stunning eyes had turned glossy as they filled with tears of fear, making him look so small and helpless. And young. He couldn’t have been more than fifteen years old.  

Chan’s frenzied state faltered just long enough for him to tear himself off from the boy and hide behind a nearby tree. 

“Run away!” he shouted to the boy as he pressed his back against the tree and dug his nails into the bark. “Run away as fast as you can!”

He held himself back as long as he could manage before he completely lost it and stumbled forward, screaming in agony as his mind, heart, and instincts all fought against each other at once. 

In an attempt to calm himself down, he tried to shut himself off from everything around him, but that failed as soon as someone shined a sudden bright light in his direction. 

His head snapped upwards, and there was no controlling himself at that point. 

 

*****

 

‘ _ Chan? _ ’ Woojin questioned in his head as soon as the figure looked up to reveal a frenzied vampire. 

All five of them stood frozen for a moment, no one wanting to make a move and risk setting the obviously hungry vampire off, but the still silence didn’t last long before Chan was running straight at Minho who was holding the light. 

Woojin knew Minho wouldn’t be able to react fast enough as a human, so Woojin jumped in between them and grabbed ahold of Chan by his arms. The vampire made an attempt to bite into his neck, but Woojin was quick to dodge it. The last thing this starving vamp needed was angel blood. 

“Chan! Listen to me. This isn’t what you want and you need to snap out of it,” Woojin tried to reason. He could tell Chan was fighting with himself internally at the moment. His angel abilities allowed him to see the true nature of people, and Chan’s nature was practically radiating selfless energy to the point Woojin knew he wasn’t the type to attack helpless people. 

While Chan was still thrashing around in his grip, he noticed Minho come around his side and snap a picture of the wild vampire, the flash further aggravating him.

“Dammit, Minho,” Woojin cursed. Something he rarely did. “Can you use your brain for like two seconds!” 

Woojin finally had enough of trying to restrain and dodge the vampire’s attempts to drink his blood, so in the next instant, Woojin’s wings grew from his back as he turned the vampire away from him and wrapped his feathered wings tightly around Chan to restrict all further movement. It didn’t take long for the comforting aura that an angel’s wings give off to calm the vampire to the point his body went limp and he passed out. 

As Woojin delicately lowers Chan’s unconscious body to the ground, Minho is pacing back and forth behind him. “I knew it!” Minho exclaimed. “There are supernaturals here and I’m going to bet you our parents knew all about that fact! ‘Three year break’ my ass.”

“Minho, calm down,” Felix said as he stepped out from behind Seungmin’s bat like wings. Woojin guessed that his brother also released his wings and black, pointed tail on reflex in response to the potential fight. “You don’t know for certain what our parents know. There are supernaturals everywhere. It could just be a coincidence.”

“Ehh, I’m going to have to side with Minho on this one. It seems odd that our parents told us to avoid the woods after dark, and then the second we go into the woods, after dark, we run into a vampire,” Seungmin said as he pulled his wings back into his body. The back of his shirt was torn through, but that was something he was used to. He didn’t bother to retract the tail which stuck out the top of his jeans, though, since he was enjoying his chance to wave it back and forth, giving it a much needed stretch. 

 “Thank you, Seungmin for being intelligent!” Minho said as he stopped pacing and jokingly put his hands together and bowed to the demon boy. 

“Was the picture really necessary, though? It really just made a bad situation worse,” Woojin sighed. He was upset at the situation, but had to admit that Seungmin and Minho had a point. 

“You seemed like you were handling it well enough,” Minho shrugged. “I needed it so I could call our parents out for their bullshit.”

“I really don’t think they meant…” Woojin started to say before he was cut off by Felix. 

“You can’t show it to them!” he shouted. 

All three of the other boys turned to Felix with a questioning look. 

“I mean… what if these supernaturals are really the only reason we came here?” Felix started to explain more calmly. “What happens when our parents identify them? What happens when they do whatever they came here to do? Are we just going to up and move again?”

They all went quiet for a moment. 

“They promised we’d stay here until you graduate, Felix,” Woojin finally said. 

“Yeah, but are you one hundred percent sure that after they do their thing, we will even be  _ able  _ to stay here anymore. What if they piss some other hunters or supernaturals off and we  _ have _ to move because it’s too dangerous to stay. They have a tendency to piss off at least one side if not both because we are playing a dangerous game of middle ground.”

There was more silence as everyone thought about what Felix said. They all had to admit he had a point. They were all too used to being woken up at late hours of the night and being rushed to leave town as fast as possible after something went wrong on a job or someone dangerous found out about their  _ circumstances _ . 

Minho was the one to finally speak as he walked close to his brother and put a reassuring arm around the smaller’s shoulder. “Wow, Lix. That was very unexpected forward thinking of you. I’m seeing all new sides of you today.’

Felix nervously blushed at Minho’s off hand attempt at praise and quickly stuttered out, “I-I just wanna stay here. O-Okay?”

“Then we won’t tell our parents,” Seungmin announced to make everything final and everyone nodded. 

Woojin then turned his head to look at Chan who was still laying on the ground and everyone’s eyes followed. 

“What do we do with him then?” Minho spoke up as he came to crouch next to him. “It isn’t safe for him to know about us either. It’s just going to lead to confrontation.”  

“To be honest, I don’t think he is going to remember any of this. His actions were so unaligned with his true nature to the point he was running purely on instinct. His mind had already turned off when we showed up,” Woojin explained. 

As Seungmin and Felix came closer to the sleeping vampire, the demon’s tail wrapped around the front of his body to poke Chan in his cheek. “Isn’t this the guy you were talking to before lunch?” Seungmin asked. 

“Oh yeah! What was his name again?” Felix asked as he finally recognized him. 

“Another person I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting today I’m guessing?” Minho also questioned. 

“Yeah. His name is Bang Chan and apparently he's ‘got the jocks, the nerds, and the gays all worshipping the ground he walks on’,” Seungmin quoted. “Or at least, that’s how Hyunjin described him.”

“Ooo. Is he gay?” Minho asked, now ten times more interested.

“Bi,” Woojin corrected in a curt tone. He wasn’t too pleased at seeing Minho practically eye fuck the unconscious boy. 

“A bi, popular kid who is actually a vampire,” Minho continued as a signature smirk made its way to his face. “Not going to say I regret not meeting him before considering he attempted to eat me, but I’ll forgive him if you say he wasn’t in his right mind. I  _ am _ a hard person to resist.”

Woojin then hit Minho upside the head while Felix rolled his eyes and said, “I’m sure your blood tastes disgusting. Woojin did him a favor by stopping him.”

After that, there was a quick discussion about their next move. In the end, Minho, Felix, and Seungmin decided to just leave Chan to wake up in the woods, much to Woojin’s protest, but time was running out before their curfew. The youngest three managed to drag Woojin back out of the woods, avoid running into the football players that had been chasing them, and book it home, arriving just as the time turned to nine o’clock. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'alllllllllll. Writer's block suuuuuuucks. 😭😭
> 
> I feel like my ability to just sit myself down and write has been sucked out of me, sooooo yeah. That's how I am right now. 
> 
> Luckily I had this chapter prewritten a week ago so I don't seem dead. Hope you guys like it! It was written during a better time *dabs eyes with a tissue*
> 
> Hyunjinnie is revealed! Our fantastic fish boy. Some 'random' 😉 fox shifter showed up. Woojin and Seungmin have wings. Seungmin has a cute lil devils tail. Minho, the smartass, was proven right all along. So much going on. What could possibly happen next?!
> 
> Ight. Sorry you guys have to deal with my dramatic ass, but these are my true colors!
> 
> (Someone should seriously stop me).


	8. Chapter 8

Considering they were in such a rush to get home the night before, they didn’t have much chance to discuss what they were going to do now that they knew about a supernatural presence in town. All they had time to agree upon in the car ride was that they wouldn’t tell their parents anything, they should be more careful about concealing themselves, and that they would figure everything else out on their walk to school the next day. 

So now, Woojin, Seungmin, and Felix were waiting in front of the Lee’s mailbox waiting for Minho to join them, all now wearing their enchanted rings which allowed them to seem human to any supernatural who might be able to sense magic. All of them, except for Dae, Cassie, and Minho who didn’t have magic, had the rings in case they were ever in a situation where they needed to fall off the radar completely, but they preferred not to wear them when they didn’t have to because they were extremely uncomfortable and almost suffocating to wear. 

“What’s taking him so long?” Seungmin impatiently asked as he fiddled with the ring on his index finger.

“He overslept his alarm because he had to clean up the mess he made in our garage last night, and it ended up taking more time than he expected,” Felix explained. “Not to mention he probably ran a shit ton yesterday between sneaking out of school and causing trouble.” 

“What’d he do to your garage?” Woojin questioned. 

Felix seemed hesitant to answer but ended up not having to as the front door to the Lee household flew open and out ran Minho with a piece of toast still hanging from his teeth. 

As Minho came up to them, he didn’t stop at the group, but rather continued to walk past them, and then had the audacity to turn back to the three boys who had been waiting on him and say, “What are you guys standing around for? We don’t have all day,” his voice muffled by the food in his mouth. 

Seungmin and Felix looked to each other, silently exchanging their plans to murder the older boy in his sleep before they jogged to catch up to him, Woojin following close behind.  

“So what’s our plan?” Minho asked as he turned around and started to walk backwards as he finally takes a bite out of his toast. 

Felix was the first to give his input, “Well shouldn’t we first make sure Chan doesn’t remember anything?” 

“I have Psychology with him first period, so I’ll check to see if he acts any differently around me or not,” Woojin said. 

“Alright. Text us what you figure out, so we know whether or not we need to look over our shoulders all day long,” Minho instructed. 

“I think we all are going to have to look over our shoulders all day, regardless,” Felix said bitterly. “Did you forget the mess you dragged us into with humans _before_ a vampire even came into the mix. The entire football team probably wants to beat us senseless!”

“You know how to handle yourself, Felix,” Minho responded. 

“Not if I get ganged up on by a group of more than three guys who are twice my size. Plus, even if I get into a fight that I _can_ win, won’t that draw too much attention? I don’t exactly look like I can fight.”

“Just say you know taekwondo or something like that,” Seungmin suggested. 

Felix just sighed, obviously frustrated. “You’re missing the point. I want to make friends, and getting into fights is definitely not the way to do that.

“Fine,” Minho finally said in response. “I’ll try and get them to leave us alone. As for supernatural related stuff… are we planning on just ignoring the fact we know there is a vampire and not investigate any further? Just because we won’t tell our parents, doesn’t mean we can’t do some hunting work ourselves. It could be fun to walk in our parent’s shoes. Investigating. Figuring out whether they are peaceful or unpeaceful. Protecting them if they are peaceful and in danger. Hunting them if they aren’t.”

“We aren’t our parents. We don’t have the right or the ability to accurately determine their fates like that. Our parents have been walking the fine line between hunters and supernaturals for more than twenty years and actually know what the hell they are doing. We’re just a bunch of kids who have been dragged along that line,” Woojin stated. “Besides, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of us not telling them? Getting curious and poking our noses into places we shouldn’t be is just asking for unwanted attention, and you were the one who said it’s best to avoid confrontation last night.”

“You know he’s right, Minho. I thought we were all on the same page last night,” Seungmin said to his friend. “It’s dangerous for both supernaturals _and_ humans to know about us since our families are so taboo. Supernaturals hate halflings like Felix and if any satanic or celestial witch find out about my mom and dad, they’ll report it to heaven or hell and they won’t hesitate to send their assassins because the only thing angels and demons can agree on is the fact that they need to kill any love between the two races.” 

The demon boy got a little emotionally heated as he was saying the last part, but these were all things they should already know considering how many times their parents have lectured them about seeming as normal and as _human_ as possible and the consequences if they failed. Seungmin also purposely neglected to mention the supernaturals who had killed Minho’s parents and how they still wanted the boy himself dead. Cassie and Dae don’t even have an idea about who or what they were, so their existence was another reason both families are so wary.

“Fineeee, I was just thinking it would be more fun that way,” Minho finally grumbled, admitting defeat for the second time as he turned back around to walk normally. “But nope, we will all just forget it even happened and carry on with our normal, boring, _human_ lives.” 

 

***** 

 

When Woojin walked into his first period class, he expected to see Chan talking to other students in the room or already sitting at his desk, but as Woojin scanned his eyes across the room, Chan was nowhere to be found. Instead, what he saw was the entire class stop whatever discussion they were having with their friends and turn in his direction. 

Woojin just stood by the entrance to the classroom, confused as to why he was getting this particular kind of attention. He wouldn’t have thought too much about it if everyone still seemed nervous and skeptical around him since he was new, but the looks he was receiving now, were not the same wary stares he received the day before.

These looks were straight-up hateful. 

Woojin gulped as he made his way to his desk, trying not to overthink the stares he was receiving or the fact that Chan wasn’t in the class yet. There were still two minutes until class started, so he shouldn’t worry just yet. 

When he sat down, a few people were still glaring at him while others had gone back to gossiping with their friends, only this time in a quieter tone. Despite this, Woojin could still hear bits and pieces of others’ conversations and figured out that everyone was talking about the fight that had gone down last night.

Woojin let out a defeated sigh as he thought to himself, ‘ _Minho better freaking fix this since it was his mess that the rest of us were just dragged into_.’

A sudden tap on his shoulder brought his attention out of his thoughts and to the person sitting behind him. As he turned around, he was somewhat expecting someone to say something mean to him about the whole event, but he was pleasantly surprised when he saw that the person behind him seemed to have a calm aura. He was a boy who looked a bit younger and was wearing a welcoming smile that made his slight baby face and puppy dog eyes even more adorable. 

“Hiya,” the boy said with a light voice. “Your name is Woojin right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Woojin responded. The boy looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure out where he had seen him before. 

“I’m Jungwoo. We both have Choir together next period.”

“Oh, right!” Woojin exclaimed, figuring out where he recognized him from. “Nice to officially meet you, then.”

Jungwoo just nodded before he leaned closer to Woojin and eagerly whispered, “Is it true that you and your friends really beat Hyuntek in a fight?” 

Woojin let out a nervous laugh, “I mean, I don’t know if that’s the best way to describe what happened. It was more like my friend Minho started a fight, and then we all ran away.”

“Wow,” Jungwoo said in awe. “That’s still super impressive.”

“I don’t think everyone else agrees considering all the death glares I got when I entered the room.”

“They're just upset that Hyuntek and two other players from the starting lineup got benched for the first football game this season because of the fight. The only thing anybody cares about at this school are the athletics and now they’re all bitter because we might lose our first game,” Jungwoo explained. 

“But you’re not bitter?” Woojin asked curiously. 

“God no. I’m thankful someone finally put Hyuntek in his place. He’s a bully, but no one takes the time to notice because he is one of the team’s best players and he only goes after the geeks, freaks, and fine arts nerds. The holy trinity whom no one seems to pay attention to,” Jungwoo said sadly. 

“That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, well, it is what it is,” as Jungwoo said this, the bell signaling the beginning of first period rang and Woojin suddenly remembered that he was supposed to check on Chan. He turned to his right to check the seat next to him since that was where the blonde sat, but when he saw his desk was still empty, he started to freak out a bit. 

_We shouldn’t have just left him in the woods. What if he didn’t wake up? What if he got hurt? What if he actually does remember and is avoiding us now? Or worse?_

Worried thoughts ran through Woojin’s head until the teacher walked into the room. Woojin’s entire body visibly relaxed when he saw Chan walking in with her, both of them in the middle of a conversation, but then he was on alert again as the vampire made eye contact with him from across the room. Woojin paid close attention to any sign in his expression that Chan remembered last night’s events. He had darker bags than usual under his eyes and he seemed a bit less put together than the day before—understandable for someone who spent the night in the woods—but otherwise, he just gave Woojin his typical warm smile, no sign of malice or unwanted curiosity in his gaze.

Chan ended his conversation with their teacher, Ms. DJ, and came to sit down in his desk next to Woojin. 

“Morning, Woojin. How was the rest of your first day at Briardale High? I hope you didn’t get lost at all,” Chan said to Woojin as he sat down.

“Yeah, no. The rest of the day was g-good and I didn’t get lost again,” Woojin forced his words out. “Thank you for taking the time to show me around!”

“No problem,” Chan said, still smiling as he turned to face forward since Ms. DJ was starting class. 

 _I guess we are in the clear_.

 

*****

 

“Freckles!” someone shouted from down the hall as Felix was making his way to his Geometry class. The freckled boy stopped walking and turned around to see Hyunjin jogging up to him. 

“Oh, hey Hyunj-”

“Is it true?” Hyunjin said quickly, cutting off Felix’s greeting. 

“Is what true?” Felix asked.

“Is it true that you got into a fight with Hyuntek at the Wolf’s Den last night?”

“Where did you hear that from?” Felix quickly asked back. The more people who knew about it, the harder it would be for Minho to fix his mess. 

“The whole school knows about it. Hyuntek and two other football players are on athletic probation because of it and can’t play during the game this weekend,” Hyunjin explained as him and Felix started walking again. “What the hell even happened? Changbin warned you guys to avoid the place and you don’t seem like the fight starting type.” 

“I’m not,” Felix sighed. “It was my brother who pissed off that Hyuntek guy during school or something yesterday, and then when Minho dragged us into the Wolf’s Den and we ran into them there, Hyuntek threw a punch at my brother.”

“Oh my God. Is your brother okay?” Hyunjin asked worriedly. Felix was relieved Hyunjin’s reaction to this news was positive, and he wasn’t judging him for getting into a fight. 

“Oh, he’s fine. It wasn’t the first fight he has gotten himself into. He does this wherever we go. It’s honestly exhausting,” Felix ranted. 

“Wow, I didn’t realize your brother could fight. You are so small and frail I was expecting your brother to be the same.”

“Hey! I am not _that_ small and I’m definitely not frail! Sorry we can’t all be giants,” Felix said defensively before he continued more calmly. “Minho does look nothing like me, though, since we are both adopted and not biological brothers.”

 “Oh, really? I guess I should just meet him myself and not make any assumptions then. He sounds like quite the character.”

“Trust me,” Felix said as they were walking into their first period classroom. “You really don’t want to.”

Upon entering, both Hyunjin and Felix noticed a small, blonde hair boy talking to Mr. Joon who was sitting down with his feet propped up on his desk, metal coffee thermos in hand. Felix knew that the boy hadn’t been in their class yesterday because he would have noticed his golden hair. It was darker than Felix’s own blonde hair but still memorable. 

“Another new kid?” Hyunjin mumbled the question as the two of them headed to their seats. 

“You don’t know him?” Felix asked as he turned back to the boy. Now that he wasn’t just looking at the boy’s back, he noticed that one of his hands was wrapped up in sloppy bandages. 

“Nope, never seen him,” Hyunjin responded. “This is crazy. One new student like I was last year is enough to put everyone on edge. Four students are enough for people to ask a shit ton of questions. _Five_ new students at the beginning of the school year are completely unimaginable. People in this town are going to think it's being invaded or something.”

“Isn’t that a bit overdramatic?”

“You’d be surprised. People here have wacky views.”

The bell signaling the start of the school day rang, and Mr. Joon lifted his feet off his desk and spun to the side in his desk chair. As his feet made contact with the floor, he took a sip from his thermos and stood up quickly, slightly startling the small new student with his sudden movement. Mr. Joon pointed in the direction of the empty desk next to Felix and said some words that the halfling couldn’t hear, but he figured he had told the boy to sit there because in the next moment, he was heading Felix’s way. 

“Alrighty class!” Mr. Joon suddenly shouted as the boy finally sat down in his seat. “We have a new student this year. Or rather two. I guess I forgot to do their introduction yesterday, but who cares because I’m doing it now.” 

The teacher then picked up a clipboard up from his desk and tried to read something off from it, but flipped it around when he noticed it was upside down. “Will Lee Felix please stand up and introduce yourself.”

Felix’s face immediately heated up at being called out in front of the entire class. He knew his ears had turned a tomato red, too, since they always did when he was embarrassed. 

Nonetheless, he still stood up from his desk and gave an awkward smile and wave, as he said, “Hello. I’m Felix.”

Mr. Joon was still looking at him after his introduction like he was expecting Felix to say something else, but he just gave the teacher a thumbs up and awkward smile, instead, and sat down quickly. 

‘ _Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Could you be any more awkward?!_ ’ Felix was practically yelling at himself. 

Mr. Joon didn’t seem too fazed, though, because he just took another sip from his thermos and turned his head to the other new kid. 

He seemed to take the hint that it was his turn to introduce himself, so he stood up and said, “Hi. My name is Jeongin. I’ve been homeschooled my entire life, so sorry if I’m a little socially awkward. I hope we can all be friends.”

While he was talking he had the widest, most adorable smile spread across his face, and Mr. Joon seemed satisfied with Jeongin’s more detailed introduction since he gave him a welcome nod rather than an expecting stare. Once Jeongin sat down, Mr. Joon cleared his throat and started class. 

At the same time, Felix felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket, so grabbed it and positioned it on his lap, so that the teacher couldn’t see. 

 

**Woojin**

Chan doesn’t seem like he remembers, so we are in the clear. 

**Seungmin**

‘In the clear’ doesn’t sound too accurate. Everyone hates us for getting those jock guys into trouble.

**Minho**

Relax guys. I have a plan.

**Felix**

Are people really that upset?

**Seungmin**

Have you really not noticed everyone looking like they want to kill you? The wrath from most of these people is suffocating. 

**Felix**

No, Hyunjin distracted me from it I guess. And there is another new student in my class, so people were also more focused on that. 

**Minho**

Another new student?

 

Felix’s attention was pulled away from his phone when something suddenly hit his forehead and fell into his lap. It was a piece of paper. When he looked up, he saw Hyunjin looking back at him, motioning for him to open the folded note and read it. 

**Okay, but for real, the new boy is the cutest thing ever. Like he can take all my uwus. I just wanna adopt!**

Felix had to hold back a laugh as he read the message. 

**We should talk to him after class. I’m sure he will be wanting to make friends just like I was yesterday.**

Felix wrote on the same slip of paper and passed it back. And sure enough, when the class came to an end, and everyone was packing up, Hyunjin and Felix approached the boy with the injured hand. 

“Hello!” Hyunjin said enthusiastically. “My name is Hyunjin and this is Felix, but you probably already knew that from his awkward introduction earlier. 

“Hey! You don’t need to call me out like that,” Felix blushed.

“Just calling it how I see it.”

Jeongin laughed at their banter. “Nice to meet you guys, I’m Jeongin, but you probably already knew that from my equally awkward introduction earlier. I’m glad I’m not the only new kid.”

“You were definitely not awkward. Not compared to me anyway,” Felix reassured. 

“Where did you move from?” Hyunjin questioned. 

“Oh, I didn’t move from anywhere. I’ve lived in Briardale since I was seven.”

“What, really?” Hyunjin said, surprised. 

“Yeah, like I said before, I’ve just been homeschooled until now.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never even seen you in town. I’ve only been here a year, but I thought I had met everyone.”

“Uh, yeah. My mom is very overprotective and doesn’t really let me get out much. I even had to beg her just to let me attend an actual school for high school. That’s why I wasn’t here on the first day. She had to ‘inspect it first’,” Jeongin explained. 

“Oh, that sucks,” Hyunjin said, his tone going a bit lower than usual. “Overprotective parents are the worst.”

“Eh, it’s not too bad. I know it’s only because she loves me and worries about me,” Jeongin said while smiling. This kid smiles _a lot_. 

“That’s lucky. As long as she loves you…” Hyunjin said quietly. Felix could tell the taller boy had gotten upset at one point during the conversation. He got the same sort of feeling that he gets from Minho whenever the conversation leans towards his birth parents, so Felix knew he should change the subject as quickly as possible.

“Do you need help getting to your next class?” Felix quickly asked. “I might not be able to help you since it’s only my second day, but I’m sure Hyunjin can. 

“Yeah, that’d be great!” Jeongin said excitedly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back at it again!  
> I'm really trying to stick to that Sunday/Monday update plan on this story in case you couldn't tell lol
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone who leaves comments on my story! Whether it's just a compliment or theorizing the plot and geeking out over events, I love all the feedback! It always makes my day when I see a comment hehe
> 
> What do you guys think about the chapter this week? Jeongin finally made his official introduction and got a little more insight into the chaoticness of the Kim and Lee families. It's pretty admirable what they do. Woojin, Seungmin, Felix, and Minho got some bomb af parents. It's a shame they have to deal with a bunch of moody teenagers (jk they love their kids)


	9. Chapter 9

It was the second day of P.E. class which meant they were actually supposed to change into athletic clothes now that they were starting to do fitness tests. Felix, on the other hand, hesitated to change his shirt in front of twenty other guys and risk them spotting the scaring flesh on his back since it would draw more attention to himself and he would have to make a cover story for it up on the spot. 

He had already changed into the gym shorts they had issued to him upon entering the gymnasium and would have kept wearing the hoodie he had on now, but saying that he lost his gym shirt wouldn’t be too believable since it was just given to him. So, alternatively, Felix was standing in front of his opened locker awkwardly, silently wishing he had said he wasn’t feeling well and gone to the nurse like he had seen Jisung do just minutes ago. On the other hand, Felix kind of wanted to avoid him as much as possible because of how Jisung had acted towards him yesterday and then their unpleasant encounter at the Wolf’s Den definitely didn’t help. 

“Hurry up and change, Freckles,” Hyunjin suddenly snapped Felix from his thoughts. “We only have a minute before they start yelling at us to get out of the locker room.”

Hyunjin’s words drew Seungmin’s attention to his friend as he turned and made eye contact with the halfling fairy. He seemed to read what the problem was just from seeing the look on Felix’s face and his half changed state. 

“Hyunjin,” Seungmin suddenly said to get the taller boy’s attention away from Felix. The last of the other boys had already left the locker room since time was running out leaving them to be the only three still in there. “I had a few questions about the different extracurricular options at the school.”

While Seungmin was distracting Hyunjin, Felix quickly removed his hoodie and threw on his T-shirt slamming his gym locker shut to let Seungmin know he was finished. Both taller boys turned back to the shorter and Felix turned to them with a wide smile. 

“All done.”

They then exited the locker room, Hyunjin seeming a tad confused at the abruptness of their exit, but he didn’t say anything. 

While they were taking the fitness test, Seungmin and Felix obviously had no trouble completing all the tasks. People actually seemed a little surprised by the fact that Felix was so physically adept considering his small frame and probably would have been commenting more on that if Seungmin and Hyunjin weren’t trying to one-up each other the entire class period. At one point Felix had to grab his arm and pull him away from everyone else so he could tell him to dial it down a bit. He was drawing too much attention to himself. 

“Relax, Felix,” Seungmin reassured. “I’m not even using much of my abilities. I’m only matching them to Hyunjin’s, and he is just an in shape human, so I don’t see any harm in appearing the same.”

Felix rolled his eyes at this argument. “At least it makes sense for Hyunjin to be good at this stuff. He does sports. You don’t do any sports.”

“No one here knows that. What if I end up joining a sports team?” Seungmin shrugged.

“Since when are you a team player?” Felix asked with a laugh of disbelief. “You hate being around random people for extended periods of time.”

Seungmin shrugged and then the teacher blew the whistle signaling that they had five minutes left of class and they could change back into their clothes now, saving Seungmin from having to come up with a clever comeback. 

“Wow, Seungmin,” Hyunjin said as he jogged up behind the two and throw his arms around both boys’ shoulders. “You are really impressive. Why didn’t you say you were athletic?”

“Never really came up in conversation,” Seungmin responded as the three entered the locker rooms. 

“I guess so, but I guess you could have mentioned what sports you play in general get to know you talk.”

_ Exactly! _ Felix thought as he gave Seungmin an ‘I told you so’ side glance. 

“Well, uh, I don’t play a sport anymore, but I use to do baseball,” Seungmin said back. He always was the best at coming up with last-minute excuses for things.

“Use to? Why’d you quit?” Hyunjin questioned as he removed his shirt, revealing his skinny torso and the abs Felix hadn’t noticed when they were changing before since he was so preoccupied with his own dilemma. “I’m sure you were really good at it.”

“I decided not to play in high school,” Seungmin answered, saying words Felix barely heard as he became mesmerized by the older boy who was half-naked and slightly covered in sweat in front of him. 

“What about you Felix?” Hyunjin suddenly said and snapped the boy out of his trance. As soon as he was able to realize what he had been doing, his face turned bright red and his eyes grew in size. 

“W-what?” Felix stuttered as he tried to remember whatever they had been talking about. Hyunjin noticed Felix’s flustered state and seemingly smirked a bit in response, something that reminded Felix a bit of Minho when he gets amused by someone flirting with him. It honestly would have otherwise bothered Felix an insane amount, but, no. What caused the fairy’s stomach to drop, was the fact that Seungmin had caught him staring, too. 

‘ _ Dammit, dammit, dammit _ ,’ Felix thought frantically to himself. ‘ _ Way to go, Felix, just casually checking out  _ other _ guys right in front of your Goddamn crush. Fuck my life. _ ’

“What sports do you play?” Hyunjin elaborated, his voice a little sickeningly sweeter.

“He did Taekwondo,” Seungmin answered for him since Felix still looked like a deer caught in headlights. 

“Oh, so you  _ can _ fight?” 

“No!” Felix blurt out without really thinking. “I mean, yes. I technically  _ can _ fight. I just don’t go around starting them.”

“That’s cool. I’m probably too clumsy for that sort of thing,” Hyunjin said as he shrugged and turned back to his locker and finished changing. Seungmin opened up his own locker too and began to put back on his clothes. 

Felix sighed in relief now that their eyes weren’t on him and quickly changed into his jeans before he slipped into a bathroom stall to change back into his hoodie.

The three of them walked together to the lunchroom after that, not really saying anything to one another since they were all caught up in there own thoughts. At least until they entered the cafeteria to see a familiar blonde-haired boy looking very lost. 

“Innie!” Hyunjin shouted, and the boy looked in their direction.

“Innie?” Felix questioned. “Seriously, what is up with you and nicknames?”

“What?” he said innocently. “You don’t like Freckles?”

“It’s whatever,” Felix shrugged as Jeongin walked up to them and looked Seungmin up and down with an almost confused look on his face. 

“Who is this?” Seungmin pulled Felix’s attention by suddenly asked in a lower, breathy voice. 

“Oh, this is Jeongin, the new student I was talking about in the group chat,” Felix started to explain until he observed Seungmin somewhat paling. The fairy quickly put his hands on Seungmin’s arm for support since it looked like he was about to pass out and asked worriedly, “Hey, Seungmin? Are you okay?”

“Wait, your name  _ is  _ Seungmin?!” Jeongin said completely surprised. Felix looked back to see the boy’s eyes widen in realization. “As in Kim Seungmin?”

Seungmin only nodded. 

“Oh my God, I thought you looked familiar, but I hardly recognized you at all!” Jeongin said excitedly, making Felix the confused one. How did Jeongin know Seungmin? “Does Woojin go here too? Oh and what about Minho? Do you guys still live with the Lees?”

“How do you know my brother?” Felix suddenly asked defensively at the mention of his family. Red flags were going off in his mind. 

“Huh?” Jeongin looked to Felix with a puzzled expression. 

“Minho. He’s my brother.”

“Ah, um, Jeongin,” Seungmin coughed and suddenly intervened, having snapped out of whatever daze he was in before. “I forgot that you and Felix never met.”

The two of them looked back to the demon and Felix asked, “When would we have met?”

“Jeongin and his mother lived with our families for a year after Jeongin’s father was killed by, uh, a  _ mental illness _ that our parents weren’t able to help with. It was before you were adopted, though,” Seungmin explained vaguely to Felix as he side glanced to Hyunjin. The freckled boy could guess right away that it was actually something supernatural related, so he decided to leave it at that for now and ask for the full explanation later.

Seungmin then turned back to Jeongin and explained for him as well. “This is Felix. He was adopted by Mrs. Dae and Mrs. Cassie shortly after you and your mom disappeared. Actually, now that I think about it, pretty much immediately after since Felix’s family was the reason we left for Australia in the first place,” Seungmin paused for a moment before the demon suddenly continued in the most fragile voice Felix had ever heard from his friend. “Why did you disappear? Dae and Cassie looked all over for you and your mother when we came back to find the two of you gone. We were worried something terrible happened.” 

“Oh, yeah... I-I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t really understand what was happening at the time,” Jeongin said as he rubbed the back of his neck guiltily. “My mom just said we had to move and I didn’t question it. I was only seven.”

“Wait,” Hyunjin said, pulling everyone’s attention to him for the first time. “So your families know each other? And Jeongin lived with you guys before Felix lived with you guys, so that’s why he didn’t know him?” he asked as he pointed between the three of them trying to sort out what on earth just happened. 

“Yeah,” Seungmin says. “That basically sums it up. 

 Felix lets out a slight laugh and turns back to Jeongin while extending his hand. “It’s a small world, isn’t it, my fellow awkward newbie?”

Jeongin smiles back at Felix and reaches his own hand out to shake the older’s. 

“Uh-huh…” Hyunjin said as he looked between the three skeptically. “We should probably hurry over to our table. Pretty sure Changbin has been staring at us while we are standing around like we are a bunch of weirdos in the middle of the cafeteria.” 

And sure enough, Hyunjin was correct because when Felix turned to look at the table they sat at yesterday, he saw Changbin looking back at him with a questioning look on his face. Felix then smiled cheerfully and waved at him to signal that they were headed over to him, but not before he turned back to Jeongin and asked, “Want to sit with us Innie?”

“Yeah!” he responded cheerfully 

 

*****

 

Meanwhile, Woojin was putting his math notebook back into his backpack at the end of the class period when Chan came up beside him and surprised him by putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“Want to walk to lunch together again?” Chan said with a laugh and a cheery smile on his face. He looked to be in better shape than he had that morning. The bags under his eyes were still there, but he seemed to have regained his bearing which had been lost that morning. 

“Sure thing,” Woojin said back. Chan’s desire to still walk and converse with him exactly like he had the day prior strengthened the angel’s belief that the vampire really had lost all memory of the previous night’s events. He was incredibly grateful it worked out since he enjoyed talking to Chan quite a lot and it would have been sad if the boy had started to avoid him. 

Woojin finished putting together his things and they started making their way out the doorway until Woojin stopped, remembering something from the day before. Chan stopped as well and looked back at the older, confused, until Woojin said, “We aren’t going to get swarmed by a bunch of people again, are we?”

Chan let out a laugh in response. “Yeah, sorry about that. I guess you could say I’m a bit popular.”

“Yes, Hyunjin was telling me all about your  _ popularity _ yesterday at lunch,” Woojin said back a bit coyly as he stepped forward and put a friendly arm around Chan’s shoulder before continuing out the door with him.  

“Yeah, I saw you sitting with Hyunjin and Changbin yesterday.”

“Oh, you paid attention to where I sat?” Woojin raised a brow and Chan pumped his shoulder into the other playfully. 

“Noooo. It was hard not to notice where you headed after that kid shouted at you across the cafeteria,” Chan responded defensively. “Plus Hyunjin is a friend of mine and I know he and Changbin always sit in that corner. It’s not too big of a school and everyone has habits.”

“So I’ve been learning,” Woojin said half to himself and half to Chan. “That kid was my brother, by the way. Seungmin. The smaller, blonde kid was Felix.”

“Weren’t there four of you?”

“Minho was skipping class. He’s the one I was telling you about who causes all the trouble,” Woojin explained, referring to their in-depth conversation that had at the end of their Psychology class the day before. Chan had greeted and been nice to him, so Woojin had told him about his brother and the Lee brothers. Chan had also been curious about why he had moved to the small town, so he told him about how their parents were ‘psychologist’, the cover story they had always used, and that they were finally settling down to set up an official practicing office. It was ironic considering they were in Psychology and they had joked about how Woojin would be the best person to study with. 

“Speaking of causing trouble,” Chan said and pulled Woojin from his thoughts. “I didn’t hear about it until after first period since I was running late to school this morning after I had a bit of a rough start, but what’s this I’m hearing about you and a fight?”

Woojin groaned, “Ah, jeez… I guess it was only a matter of time before you heard about it, too. Between Seungmin, Felix, and I, we’ve probably been asked about that twenty times already today while the actual man responsible is probably just skipping class again.”

“So Minho was the one who started the fight?” Chan reasoned. 

“The one and only,” Woojin grumbled back.

“Ah, that makes more sense. I know how it is to get dragged into your friends’ messes,” Chan said nostalgically as the two of them finally made their way into the lunchroom. 

“Guess this is where we part ways,” Woojin said as he turned to face Chan one more time with a toothy smile. 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I’ll see you tomorrow, then. You should probably join your group over th-” Chan suddenly stopped talking as he looked in the direction of the table Woojin had sat at the day before, so he turned around too in order to see what had caused Chan to pause. 

Felix and Seungmin were already seated in the cafeteria with Hyunjin and Changbin, same as they had been the day before, but this time there was a fifth person with them. The two boys could see this new face clearly from where they stood and the first thing Woojin noticed was his golden blonde hair and wide smile. The smile, in particular, grabbed his attention since it seemed extremely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place where he had seen it before. 

“Oh, that might be the new kid Felix texted me about this morning,” Woojin guessed before turning back to Chan to see his face had paled. The angel didn’t think it was even possible for him to be any paler. “Are you okay?”

Chan remained spaced out for a moment more, not saying anything until he finally cleared his throat and said weakly, “I-I have to go to the b-bathroom. See you tomorrow, Woojin.”

And then off he went, leaving Woojin confused and worried for the other. 

 

*****

 

“Hmm,” Minho hummed to himself as he scanned the lunch room looking for his friends, completely ignoring all the other students sitting at tables nearby him and giving him the stink eye. It was a task that didn’t really take too long since they were sitting off in a corner that didn’t have any other students sitting near there except for an additional three people Minho didn’t recognize. 

Minho assumed that two of them were the new friends they were talking about the night before, Changbin and Hyunjin, so Minho thought he should make an  _ impressive _ first impression. 

And that’s exactly what he did as he ran up behind Felix who had his back to him, and jumped over the table to the other side, sitting himself down next to the lanky stranger who was seated across from his brother. The two of them screamed and practically fell out of there seats at Minho’s sudden arrival while everyone else was just kind of stunned silent. 

It was Seungmin who finally broke the silence as he burst out laughing, Woojin following close behind.

“What the hell, Minho!” Felix shouted at him. “You scared the living shit out of me and Hyunjin!” 

As he said this, he pointed to the skinny dark haired boy Minho was now seated next to and Minho really looked at him for the first time. ‘ _ Damnnnnnn _ ,’ Minho thought to himself. ‘ _ He is almost as good looking as I am. _ ’ Almost being the key word.

“Nice of you to join us, Minho,” Woojin said from the other side of the table. 

“Care to introduce me to your friends?” Minho asked as he scanned the other three boys who were present at the table and then turned his attention to Felix. His brother only continued to look at him like he had just grown horns out the top of his head, so Minho sighed and placed a smile on his face as he added, “Please?”

Felix sighed and muttered something Minho couldn’t quite catch under his breath before he started by pointing to the pretty boy sitting next to Minho. “This is Hyunjin. Hyunjin, this is my brother, Minho.”

The newly introduced boy shook his head quickly back and forth as he finally recovered from his shocked state after the scare when he heard his name. He proceeded to look Minho up and down quickly and say, “You were right, Felix. He looks nothing like you. You are so much cuter.”

“What was that, pretty boy?” Minho said as his smile left his face and he now stared Hyunjin dead in the eye. The two of them then entered a staring contest which no one really knew what it was about, except for the two of them. 

They were finally interrupted when both Felix and the boy on the other side of Hyunjin cleared their throats and guided the conversation back to introductions.

 “And then sitting next to him is Changbin,” Felix continued as he pointed to the smaller dark haired boy who was wearing all black and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but inside a school. 

“Your reputation precedes you,” Changbin said plainly, but it still caused a smile to return to Minho’s face. 

“It’s not a compliment,” Seungmin pointed out and Minho rolled his eyes.

“A bad reputation is better than no reputation at all.” 

“I don’t think it really works like that, but anyways,”  Felix redirected his attention again as he pointed to the small blonde haired boy at the end of the table sitting across from Woojin. "Lastly there is Jeongin who you apparently already know.” 

“I do?” Minho questioned as he looked the boy up and down. 

“I don’t blame you if you don’t remember. I was confused and surprised myself. Jeongin lived with us for a bit a year after you were adopted,” Woojin explained before he continued on in a lower tone, “but you didn’t really speak to him or anyone for that matter since it was before Felix came to live with us...” 

The two years he lived with Dae and Casie before Felix joined their family was not a time in Minho’s life he was particularly fond of. Even though he knew his adoptive parents loved and would protect him, it was still hard to deal with the world after he had witnessed the deaths of his loving birth parents, learned about a terrifying, chaotic world of magic and monsters, and moved away from everyone and everything he had known. It was understandable that he shut everyone out. 

Despite all this, as Minho looked closer at the kid who was sitting at the lunch table, he vaguely remembered an image of a cute little blonde-hair boy who used to run around with Seungmin and Woojin when they were little kids while Minho just watched from the side lines and how he would occasionally come try to cheer him up with a wide smile across his face and fluffy ears atop his head.  _ Wait, ears? _

“Oooooh, little fox boy!” Minho exclaimed aloud as he remembered. 

Woojin practically choked on air, Seungmin was desperately trying to restrain himself from hitting Minho, Jeongin had turned red, and everyone else was confused. 

“So you remembered his nickname,” Seungmin said through clenched teeth, giving Minho a  _ what the hell?  _ look. 

“Nickname?” Hyunjin questioned, a little overly interested. 

“Oh, yeah… People have always said I look like a fennec fox since I was little, and it kind of stuck, I guess,” Jeongin explained with a forced laugh.

“Yeah…” Woojin played along. “I guess we  _ did _ use to call you that all the time.”

“Hmm. I can see it,” Changbin added after examining the youngest. 

“Anyways, what made you decide to grace us with your presence, Minho?” Seungmin asked, turning the conversation back to the newest addition to their lunch table. “Are you here to share your grand plan to get back on everyone’s good side after the stunt you pulled last night?”

“Not quite yet. I have a plan, but you will have to wait to find out what it is,” Minho responded his signature smirk and a wink before he continued. “The actual reason why I’m here is because I am looking for the boy I ran into yesterday at the Wolf’s Den. The one with the cute cheeks that looks like a squirrel.”

“Jisung?” Felix and Hyunjin said at the same time, causing both Lee brothers to look at the taller boy, confused.

“How’d you know we ran into Jisung, yesterday?” Felix questioned.

“I didn’t,” Hyunjin stated. “I could just guess that’s who you’re talking about since Jisung is kind of known for looking like a squirrel. Plus his parents own the Wolf’s Den and he works there, so it wasn’t too hard to put two and two together. Why are you looking for him?” 

“Because I think he’s cute.”

“Oh, you like boys?” Hyunjin asked curiously, but not in a surprised or judgemental way. 

“Boys. Girls. Everything in between,” Minho said nonchalantly and Woojin and Seungmin suddenly laughed at how straightforwardly he had said those words. They were used to Minho being straightforward, but they still always found it amusing to see new people be surprised by it. And Jeongin certainly was surprised considering his previous impression of him had been that of a quiet, depressed boy who would never join them to play.

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t skipped class yesterday, you would have realized he is in our theater class next period,” Felix pointed out in a sassy tone. 

“Really? I was completely planning on blowing that class off all year, but Jisung might make it worth going to.”

“Wow, I feel the love,” Felix said back sarcastically. “It’s not like your own brother was in that class too or anything.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this is officially the longest chapter I've ever written. I don't even feel like that much happened in this chapter, so no clue how that happened.
> 
> Well, maybe things did happen. Surprise! Seungmin, Woojin, and Minho knew Jeongin all along! Wonder why his mom just poofed them like that... hmmmmm 
> 
> Also, what on earth could Minho be planning?
> 
> Possibilities, possibilities. 
> 
> (Y'all idek what I'm doing in these A/N's anymore. I feel like one of those tv announcers that are just like 'Next week on Briardale')


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm going to put this disclaimer out here and hope everyone reads it so that no one gets confused:  
> If you have read this story at all before 12/13/19, I recommend going back and rereading the first chapter. I ended up changing a few things in regards to the relationship between the Kim parents and Lee kids and vise versa. If you don't like rereading stuff, just know that Felix and Minho call Seungmin and Woojin's parents Aunt Maiz and Uncle Leo (their first names) now. The way I had it before, the relationship was too formal for people who are basically extended family. 
> 
> (Also we are just going to pretend like I didn't just disappear for four months)

‘ _ Move, move, move, _ ’ Chan thought to himself as he pushed past all the students making their way into the cafeteria for lunch. His heart was beating rapidly, his breathing was becoming more of a pant, and his mind was racing a million miles a sec. ‘ _ The fox boy from the woods. What’s he doing here? Where’d he come from? He got away? I didn’t lose control and kill him _ .’ 

When he had woken up in the middle of the woods with a raging headache, a slight hunger, and a vague memory of yelling at a young boy running away from him, he had spent a good part of the morning freaking out and questioning if he had actually restrained himself long enough for the boy to get away. And now he knew. He saw the same adorable boy in the light of day with a wide, blinding smile on his face from across his school’s cafeteria.  

But he also remembered the smell. The sight of the red substance dripping down the boy’s hand. And he still craved it. 

He needed to get out of the crowd  _ now _ and calm himself down before he relapsed into a similar state to the one he was in the night before. 

Using the last of his good wits, he made his way to the bathroom right next to the nurse’s office, slamming his shoulder into the door with more strength than necessary. He had picked this bathroom specifically since everyone pretty much avoided it due to the paranoia that was now linked to the space after a stomach virus outbreak two years before. Because of this, Chan didn’t bother to check if the stalls were empty before he ran straight to a sink, clutched the sides with enough force to hear the sink’s material crack slightly, and looked into the mirror in front of him as his eyes switched between brown and red. At the same time, his gums were throbbing as his fangs started to grow. 

In one inhumanly quick motion, Chan turned on the faucet and started to rinse his face with the cold water that the sink provided. 

“Calm down, calm down,” he started to mumble aloud to himself. “The boy’s okay. You didn’t do anything to him. You controlled yourself then and a thousand times before that. You won’t hurt anyone.”

It took some time, but eventually, the cool water began to relax his body and his self-affirmations calmed his mind. Chan felt his mouth stop hurting and when he looked back to his reflection, he noticed that his eyes had also stopped changing color. 

The sound of him panting was the only noise that could be heard in the small bathroom once he switched the faucet back off, and even his breathing became more silent as Chan just stood in front of the mirror, staring at his dripping reflection, finally settling back into reality. 

He was unsure of how long he was just standing there, but it wasn’t until his superhuman hearing finally tuned into a heartbeat that he actually started to pay attention to his surroundings. 

He wasn’t alone.

Chan tensed and quickly spun around to see if anyone had witnessed his struggle, and as if on cue, the stall door directly behind him swung open slowly at the same moment to reveal a familiar chubby-cheeked boy. 

The older visibly relaxed at seeing someone he didn’t have to hide his vampirism from, but immediately became concerned again as he processed the watery eyes and extra-large turtleneck sweater the boy was wearing. 

It was starting to get cold outside, but it wasn’t cold  _ enough  _ to need that large turtle neck, especially for a werewolf who could handle the cold. No, Chan knew all too well what chain of events would lead up to Jisung wearing a similar outfit in the past, and alarms started going off immediately. 

“Jisung,” Chan said in a gentle voice as he stepped towards the boy only for Jisung to brush him off, step past him, and head toward the sink Chan was just at. 

“Jisung,” Chan tried again in a stronger, but still consoling voice. “Are you okay?”

Jisung continued to ignore him as he just washed his hands in silence. 

The older didn’t know what to do. He knew that Jisung didn’t want to talk to him, and hasn’t wanted to talk to him since that day three years ago, but he still cared for the younger as if he were his own brother. 

So despite his better judgment telling him not to, he walked closer to put his hand reassuringly on the wolf’s shoulder while he simultaneously asked the question that Chan thought he already knew the answer to. 

“Is your dad hitting you again?”

 

*****

 

“Stop crying you idiot,” Jisung scolded himself as he wiped away the tears that had started falling down his face as he leaned his back onto the bathroom stall door. 

He hadn’t come into the bathroom with the intention to break down into tears. He had just been hoping to avoid the cafeteria for as long as possible after the nurse kicked him out of her office since he could only stay in there for one class period if he wasn’t sick enough to be sent home. Not that he was  _ actually _ sick at all. He just thought it was too early in the football season to explain the bruises on his body as ‘just from practice’ while changing in the locker room. He especially didn’t want Hyunjin to see and worry about him, or, even worse, have him telling Changbin about it. 

The number of times Jisung has had to use the football excuse whenever people looked at the black and blue blemishes on his skin was the exact reason he shouldn’t be crying. ‘ _ You should be used to this by now. It shouldn’t still get to you.’ _

At first, it was just his dad. His pack alpha’s way to ‘toughen the pup up’, but then the bullies became a problem, too. A torment that was worse since even though the werewolf could physically do something to defend himself, fighting back would only expose what he and his family actually were to the humans of Briardale. And so he was forced to do nothing but take the hits.

The first time in his life where Jisung didn’t feel like the whole world was against him, was the day Chan and Changbin stood by his side and helped him finally defend himself against his bully. That was the day the three boys from rival families became unlikely friends.

_ ‘As if any of that fucking matters now,’  _ Jisung thought to himself as he thought about his former friends. Chan and Changbin weren’t his friends anymore, and even though his father hasn’t laid a hand on him in nearly three years and his childhood bully was long gone, there was just another bully to take his place. 

 

_ A punch to his gut. A kick to his shin. Hateful words being shouted in his face.  _

_ Jisung had just been walking into school when Hyuntek and the other guys from the team who were involved in the incident at the Wolf’s Den grabbed him and dragged him to the back of the school where there were no teachers or students to see what was happening. Just before then, the coach had apparently received an anonymous report about Hyuntek and two more starting players being involved in the fight, and the local sheriff had apparently been able to verify this report since he saw the football players running towards the woods just as he arrived on the scene.  _

_ Jisung guessed the sheriff had just missed seeing Minho and the other new kids run off in front of the football players because they didn’t seem to be in trouble, and from what he could remember about what Hyuntek had been yelling at him this morning, the coach was too pissed off at the three first-string players for just being involved in a fight to even care about who they were fighting against.  _

_ So in the end, since the new kids were now untouchable and Hyuntek didn’t want to get in trouble again, they all decided to take their frustration out on the one person they knew would keep their mouth shut and was still around to blame: Jisung.  _

 

BANG!

Jisung was shocked out of his brutal flashback when he heard what sounded like the bathroom door slamming open and hitting the wall very loudly. It was only a matter of seconds before the werewolf recognized the familiar undead scent of his former best friend.

‘ _ Channie _ ,’ Jisung’s mind called out. Even though he hated to admit it, at that moment he wanted nothing more than to run out of the stall he was hiding in and embrace Chan in the comforting hug the older always provided him whenever he would come running into their Hideaway crying his eyes out. He didn’t want to admit he still needed them because that meant that he was still dependent despite all of his efforts not to be. 

However, it wasn’t long before Jisung noticed something was wrong with the older. The smell of panic and the other’s sweat filled the hair.

Chan was having a breakdown at the sink just outside the stall, he was currently in. 

Jisung didn’t know what to do.  _ Was something wrong? Has he not been getting enough blood? Has he been getting too much blood? Was someone hurt? Does this have something to do with the new kids? _

A thousand questions ran through his head until he noticed the atmosphere was still and Chan had finally calmed down on his own whilst Jisung had done nothing. It was too still to the point Jisung couldn’t take it anymore. He just needed out of that stupid bathroom as fast as possible.

He immediately regretted leaving the safety of his hiding spot as soon as he stepped out and immediately made eye contact with the older. At that moment, Jisung witnessed Chan’s facial expression change from stressed to concerned the second the older processed the younger’s appearance. 

‘ _ I don’t need your pity,’ _ Jisung thought as he managed to hold his head high and walk straight past Chan to wash his hands. 

And then he felt Chan’s cold hand on his shoulder right before he asked the question Jisung really didn’t want to hear. 

“Is your dad hitting you again?”

Jisung gritted his teeth. ‘ _ No  _ he’s  _ not the problem, anymore,’  _ he wanted to say to his old friend, but he couldn’t. He was too proud to show that kind of weakness anymore. So, after standing frozen for a beat, he jerked away from the older’s hand. 

“Mind your own fucking business, Chan!” Jisung shouted out in a flash of anger. “It’s not like you’ve given a shit for three fucking years!”

He knew what he said was bullshit. He knew Chan actually still cared about him even if he and Changbin refused to talk to him and each other. Jisung was the one who had made it impossible for the older to help him, but he still stormed out of the bathroom, leaving Chan behind and speechless. 

 

*****

 

Minho let out a long yawn right before he glanced to his left and saw his brother giving him adamant side eye. 

“If you want to say something, Felix, just say it,” Minho finally said as the two were walking to their theater class. 

“You’re unbelievable, you know that, Minho?” Felix deadpanned.

Minho lazily chuckled a bit at that. “I guess I am pretty unbelievable, but I think we have two different meanings behind that assessment. Care to be more specific?”

“You, deciding to suddenly show up out of nowhere, scare the shit out of me and my friend, say whatever you said to make Woojin, Seungmin, and even Jeongin freak out, and now you are finally going to a class just because I said a ‘cute’ boy was going to be there,” Felix ranted. 

Minho sighed as he thought back to the events which took place during lunch, “First of all, you and that Hyunjin guy practically shitting yourselves was fucking hilarious and you can’t change my mind on that. Second, everyone freaking out so much is the only thing that made what I said a big deal. It’s not like me saying ‘fox boy’ revealed anything to anyone. Are a bunch of teenagers who shouldn’t even believe in magic in the first place really going to assume that Jeongin is a supernatural fox shifter based on  _ one  _ offhand comment? I think not.”

“So that’s what he is?” Felix asked. 

“Oh, you didn’t know that?” Minho questioned innocently before saying more to himself, “I’m actually starting to think Jeongin was the weird fox I saw in the woods when I snuck out of school yesterday.”

Felix just looked blankly at his brother. “No, I did not  _ know  _ Jeongin was a fox shifter because  _ some _ people didn’t bother to tell me that he even existed even though he used to live with you all, apparently. It wasn’t until Seungmin practically turned into a ghost after seeing Jeongin that I even figured out there was a connection, and Hyunjin was with us, so Seungmin couldn’t exactly explain the whole thing,” Felix said passive-aggressively. 

Minho had to admit that Felix had a justified reason to be a little bit upset right now, and the older assumed that was the reason the younger was getting so worked up right now despite the fact he was use to Minho’s antics. Sure, Felix hadn’t been there when the Yangs were, but Dae and Cassie, or at least someone, should have told him about it at some point since the Yang family had been apart of their lives. On the other hand, Minho couldn’t really fault anyone for not wanting to talk about them after they ran away leaving so much confusion, anger, and sadness behind. 

Minho was the only one who truly knew the impact both Jeongin and his mom had made in the year they lived with them. He was so quiet and reserved at the time that most people forgot he was even there. He overheard and saw so much that wasn’t meant for him to see. 

“You know how some supernaturals mate, right,” Minho suddenly stopped walking and asked out of nowhere. Felix was visibly confused, but saw that the conversation was taking a turn towards topics that shouldn’t be overheard, so he looked around to make sure no one was nearby before nodding. 

“Yeah, like werewolves, vampires, angels, and demons, but not all species do. Supernaturals like fairies and witches, don’t,” Felix answered. 

“Correct, and shifters mate, too,” Minho added. 

Aunt Maiz and Uncle Leo had once explained mating to the boys after they curiously asked about the matching, black, swirl design both supernaturals had on their right wrists. ‘ _ Mating was the result of souls bonding together forever through a process involving an exchange of blood and love _ ,’ they said. They had also emphasized the fact that mating was a choice and not a destined thing. One doesn’t just have a soulmate who they are ultimately supposed to end up with in the world. There are just the people you meet and just can’t help falling in love with to the point you want to experience that love in a deeper, more tangible way. That was ultimately how an angel and a demon ended up mated together despite it going against both their very natures. 

“When Jeongin’s mom, or Ms. Stella as I remember her, met our parents, she had just lost her mate to the very hunter that our parents and the Kims had been trying to hunt down, and needless to say, when you lose a mate, you’re left more than a little broken. She was in no shape to raise her son on her own, and so Dae and Cassie did what they do best and took them in,” Minho hesitated before he continued. He wasn’t really sure if this next part of the story was his to tell since he wasn’t even supposed to really know about it in the first place. “Over the course of the year… Dae and Cassie did everything in their power to get Ms. Stella back to her old self. They took care of her so much to the point they both seemed like they were starting to care for her too much, and she cared for them just as much…”

“What are you trying to say Minho?” Felix asked wanting his brother to get to the point already.

“No one else knows about this, Felix, so you can’t just go around telling Seungmin or Woojin about what I’m about to tell you,” Minho suddenly got even more serious and Felix couldn’t help but straighten a little at the older’s tone and nod in acknowledgment. 

“It was right before we left for Australia. Dae and Cassie had finally tracked down the hunter that had killed Ms. Stella’s mate, and they both agreed that it would be best if her and Jeongin stayed behind so that she wouldn’t relapse into grief, or worse, let a personal vendetta make her do something she could never turn back from. I was there when they were convincing her to stay behind, even though they didn’t know it, so I was there when…” Minho hesitated for a second, “when I heard Dae and Cassie tell Stella that they loved her.”

Felix just looked at his brother confused, “They loved her? I don’t understand what you’re…?”

Minho stared into the younger’s eyes, trying to get him to understand, “They loved her like how they loved each other, and I’m pretty sure she felt the same way about both of them which is why she left. She got scared by her own emotions towards, not just one, but  _ two  _ people who weren’t her mate. Two people who were other women. Two people who were humans. It became too much and so she ran away from it all and took Jeongin with her before she was forced to face it.”

Felix already looked shocked enough to the point Minho almost didn’t explain the next part of the story, but the older knew he had a right to know. “Dae and Cassie ended up finding that ruthless hunter and Aunt Maiz was the one who killed him for his crimes, but not before he had already killed a fairy woman and human man…” Minho left the implication for Felix to interpret. 

“The hunter who killed Jeongin’s dad also killed my parents?” Felix concluded in a weak, shaky voice, seemingly unaware he had even said it aloud.

“All of the adults already felt like they had failed and were responsible for orphaning you, and, on top of that, when we returned to find Stella and Jeongin gone, something in everyone broke. Dae and Cassie had lost someone they loved, Aunt Maiz and Uncle Leo felt helpless because they couldn’t do anything to fix it all, Woojin felt helpless because he couldn’t comfort his little brother, and Seungmin was just completely devastated in his own right. Seungmin and Jeongin had literally been attached at the hip the entire year they had lived with us. He was just as crushed by them disappearing as Dae and Cassie. That’s why you inevitably never knew about her and Jeongin. No one wanted to bring it up and deepen the wound.”

Minho could tell that the younger’s mind was racing a million miles a minute. Felix had just found out that their moms had loved another person even though he probably had never considered three people could even love each other romantically, gotten a detail about his parent’s death he hadn’t known before, and on top of all that, Felix was probably confused as to why he had never noticed any of this was happening around him as a child. Minho had made sure he didn’t know about it. 

When Felix joined their family, Minho didn’t have the option to be the quiet, depressed child he had been before. He now had a younger brother who was suffering the same way he had and no one else was going to be there for him since they were all dealing with their own grief. He had to protect this new addition to their family with everything he had. That’s when Minho started to block everything out rather than mope about. That’s when he started to goof off and act out because it made everyone either laugh or focus on his antics instead of what was making them sad. And his efforts worked as long as no one brought up what they had lost. 

Felix had been stunned silent for what felt like too long, and Minho was about to say something to snap his little brother out of the spiraling train of thought, but the school bell did that for him as it rang through the halls to signal they were both late to their theater class. 

“Shit,” Felix muttered as he regained enough composure to take off in a dash towards the school’s theater. 

Minho followed behind at a slower pace, not really caring if he was late to class. He ran his hand through his hair and let out a big sigh. He hadn’t anticipated a deep conversation, and he definitely hadn’t expected it to drain his already waning energy as much as it had. The two days of little sleep must have been getting to him. The nightmares were taking their toll, and despite what he had said to Felix the previous night, Minho realistically didn’t see his nightmares going away as easily as he wished they would. 

When he walked into the theater, it didn’t seem like the teacher was actually here yet to start class, so everyone was just doing their own thing. Minho scanned the room, trying to see where Felix had gone when his eyes settle upon the adorable brown-haired boy sitting with his legs crisscrossed and his upper body crouched over a stack of papers spread across the front most part of the stage while he drowned in an oversized turtleneck sweater and absentmindedly chewed on the side of a wooden pencil in his mouth. The sight initiated a smile to spread across the older boy’s face and restored a bit of his lost energy as he walked up to the edge of the stage and leaned against it while Jisung was too busy focusing on whatever he was reading to even notice. 

“Aren’t you hot in that, angel?” Minho suddenly asked causing Jisung to jump in surprise. For some reason, Minho thought it was funny to call people ‘angel’ when he was actually best friends with a real one.

“W-what did you just call me,” Jisung stuttered with a red tint developing in his chubby cheeks. 

“Angel,” he repeated. “Do you not like it? Would you prefer something else?”

“Wha-, no. I don’t want you to call me anything like that.”

Minho thought for a second, putting more consideration than usual into the name. “What about kitten?”

Jisung’s face scrunched up in a look of disgust as Minho said the new pet name, but the older couldn’t help but find the action adorable. 

“That’s even worse. Can you please just leave me alone? I’m not in the mood right now.”

Minho was confused. This wasn’t the same snappy and feisty boy he had met yesterday. He seemed sad and closed off, instead. “But you never answered my question, kitten,” the older eventually continued with a playful laugh, trying to lighten the mood, as he leaned forward to grab at the hem of Jisung’s sweater and fiddle with the material. “Isn’t it still too warm to wear a turtleneck that big.” 

Jisung practically spazzed as he pulled his sweater out from Minho’s hands. “It’s none of your business. I said leave me alone, already.”

Jisung turned back to the papers and Minho was getting a little annoyed at himself for not being able to cheer the younger up. Whenever Lix was upset, he would tease him until they were both laughing their asses off. Apparently, the same method didn’t work for everyone. 

The elder then looked to the papers that Jisung was reading through. It looked like a script of some sort, so he ended up grabbing for a couple pieces of paper and asking, “Whatcha got here?”

Minho heard what almost sounded like a growl come from the smaller boy as he went to grab the papers back from the thief’s hands, but Minho kept moving it out of his reach, glad that a little feistiness had come back to the other. 

That’s when someone else came up behind Minho and snatched it from him, and both boys who had just been fighting like little kids turned to find Felix glancing at whatever was written on the papers. 

 

*****

 

Felix, who had taken a moment in the back corner of the theater to regain his bearings after arriving in a frenzy only to see that the teacher wasn’t even there, finally paid attention to what was going on around him as Minho was making his way towards the front of the room. Towards Jisung. 

Felix rolled his eyes at the fact Minho could just brush off everything he had just been talking about in order for him to  _ flirt _ . However, as he focused more on Jisung, the papers scattered around the boy sparked the fairy’s curiosity, so he approached them just as Minho had taken a few of the papers away from Jisung. That gave Felix the perfect opportunity to see what they were.

Both Jisung and his brother turned to look at him as he snatched the paper’s Minho had been flaunting, but he didn’t care about their gazes as he realized what he was looking at, “Is this the script for  _ Into the Woods _ ?!” the fairy questioned enthusiastically with bright eyes.

“Yeah,” Jisung responded curtly, but for once, his curtness didn’t affect Felix’s mood. “A script that I am  _ trying  _ to read so that I can practice for the audition next Monday.”

Felix approached Jisung and extended his hands to give the loose sheets of paper back to him. “Can I read through it with you? I can even help you practice if you want by reading through lines if you are up for it.”

Jisung seemed a little taken aback by how genuinely Felix asked this of him. “I mean…  sure, if you are really serious about wanting to practice…” 

Felix nodded quickly in response and gave Jisung an extra bright smile.

“Since when are you interested in all this theater stuff?” Minho suddenly questioned, reminding them both that he was still there as well. 

“Since a while ago. We just never stayed at a school long enough for me to audition for something,” Felix declared to his brother before turning back to his apparent fellow thespian. “ _ Into the Woods _ is one of my favorite musicals, so I’m really glad the school is doing a production of it.”

“It’s one of my favorites, too! I have the entire soundtrack from the movie they made a few years ago downloaded on my phone,” Jisung responded with a smile on his face, seeming to have relaxed completely. 

“So  _ Into the Woods _ is one of those plays where they sing?”

The two younger boys turned to Minho, looking at him like he had just asked if the sky was blue or not. 

“Why are you in this class if you don’t even know that much,” Jisung honestly sounded offended as he asked this.

Minho just shrugged, not getting why it was getting made into a big deal, “It’s required to take a fine arts class to graduate.”

“I’m so sorry you have to live with this,” Jisung solemnly said to Felix as he put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder and shook his head for dramatic emphasis.  

Minho rolled his eyes, but also seemed to smile a bit? Not smirk, smile. “I’m guessing you both are auditioning for this musical, then?” 

The younger two simultaneously answered “yes” as if was the most obvious thing in the world and Minho had someone wronged them by even asking.

Minho shrugged and took the hint for once that his presence was no longer welcomed. However, as he started to walk away, they heard him mumble, “It might be fun for me to give this musical thing a shot, too, then.”

Felix and Jisung then looked back to each other and shared a baffled look in reaction to how unbelievable Minho was before they both erupted in exasperated laughter. Felix couldn’t help but feel a little warm inside at how the hostility that he had felt from Jisung the day before was completely gone now, and it really seemed like the two of them could actually be friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol this is officially the longest chapter I've written, and so much freaking happened.   
> Hope you guys enjoyed and let me know what y'all think. 
> 
> And I'm not actually going to leave you guys hanging on wth I've been.   
> If you are unaware, as I'm sure most of you guys are since I only really go into my personal life on Wattpad, I started college this semester at a senior military college, and let's just say... I got fucked over 5-6 days a week depending on if we had a football game that weekend or not. So with the time I actually did have off, I spent it using 0% of my effort. 
> 
> And fucking hell, I haven't even said anything about Woojin. My bear, my love, OT9 will remain in my fics forever!  
> Thank you Woojin <3


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